What kind of change is it when mentos are added to diet coke?

Question

Is it a physical or chemical change?

Also why is it that kind of change?

Answer 1

A Mentos eruption (also known as a Mentos and Diet Coke geyser) has become a backyard science experiment fad.
The experiment involves dropping several Mentos candies into a bottle of diet cola, resulting in an eruption. This reaction occurs because of the rapidly expanding carbon dioxide inside once the Mentos are introduced to the carbonation.

While there are various theories being debated as to the exact scientific explanation of the phenomenon, many scientists claim that it is a physical reaction and not a chemical one.

When Mentos is dropped into soda, the gelatin and gum arabic of the candy dissolves and breaks the surface tension. This disturbs the water mesh, so that it takes less work to expand and form new bubbles. Each Mentos candy has thousands of tiny pits all over the surface. These tiny pits function as nucleation sites, perfect places for carbon dioxide bubbles to form. As soon as the Mentos enters the soda, bubbles form all over the surface of the candy. The Mentos quickly sinks to the bottom, releasing carbon dioxide as it comes into contact with carbonated liquid along the way. The sudden increase in pressure pushes all of the liquid up and out of the bottle.

Answer 2

My sense is that this is a simple physical change. The carbon dioxide gas is simply dissolved in the water of the Coke. We all have experienced that soda will go "flat" if the top is not put on tightly. The addition of the Mentos provides a nucleation site for the bubbles of gas to form on. Since the Mentos have a lot of surface area, lots of gas comes out of solution rapidly. So this is simply a physical change. There is no change is the chemical structure of the carbon dioxide. This would be comparable to dissolving sugar in water. (The sugar does not change its chemical structure.)

Answer 3

its both, it's the chemical reaction that makes the soda fizz up ( that's the physical change)
my son did this for a science project last year, before it was all over the interent and he got an A. I had to help him research it so i too learned about it. and it's only diet coke. other soda's dont work any where near as well FYI

Answer 4

Can you think of a chemical change without a physical change?

Answer 5

chemical

Answer 6

an awesome change