Question about Mentos and Diet Coke...?

Question

What is it about the Mentos and Diet Coke that makes it want to explode?

My *theory* is that the Diet Coke is Acidic... the Mentos could possibly be more on the alkaline side of things and cause a reaction, similar to the vinegar and baking soda trick. BUT then I thought about it... the Mentos have sugar in them, and being in the dental field, I know that sugar can cause your mouth to be acidic. If that were the case, my theory would not be true.

Soooo... I am asking you wonderful Yahoo Answers people what makes the Mentos/Diet Coke trick work?

thanks for your time and answers.

Answer 1

umm i think its because mentos have some sort of little holes on them and the diet coke has something in it that the little holes fill up and they ar let loose and it starts all over again until the diet coke runs out of it

edit: so i found some info whis is that

dropping several Mentos candies (usually 5–8) into a bottle of diet cola, resulting in an eruption. This reaction is to occur because of rapidly expanding carbon dioxide bubbles inside once the Mentos are introduced to the carbonation.

more info is that When you drop the Mentos into the soda, the gelatin and gum arabic from the dissolving candy break the surface tension. This disrupts 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 are called nucleation sites - perfect places for carbon dioxide bubbles to form. As soon as the Mentos hit the soda, bubbles form all over the surface of the candy. Couple this with the fact that the Mentos candies are heavy and sink to the bottom of the bottle and you've got a double-whammy. When all this gas is released, it literally pushes all of the liquid up and out of the bottle in an incredible soda blast. You can see a similar effect when cooking potatoes or pasta are lowered into a pot of boiling water. The water will sometimes boil over because organic materials that leach out of the cooking potatoes or pasta disrupt the tight mesh of water molecules at the surface of the water, making it easier for bubbles and foam to form."

Answer 2

I am not sure, but Myth Busters done a show on the soda/mentos trick. They are always showing re-runs, so if you don't get an answer here, check the Discovery channel from time to time.

Answer 3

its rarely acid/base reaction that cause the mentos/coke explosion but the way or speed the carbon dioxide is released from the coke or any carbonated beverages.

Carbonated beverages like Diet coke is infused with carbon dioxide gas under pressure to give it the characteristic "fizz" associated with soda pop. so any unopened bottle of soda pop is actually a pressurized container of liquid/gas mixture usually at significantly higher than outside air pressure.

when a bottle of soda pop is opened the carbon dioxide gas is released slowly if the bottle is carefully opened. but if the bottle is shaken then the co2 (carbon dioxide) is given a push and is released more energetically.(F1 champagne showers everyone).
the introduction of a piece of candy into the carbonated beverage increases the release of co2 tenfold due to the nature of candied sweets to be water soluble, meaning that as the candy dives down it slowly dissolves, the water soluble material rapidly intermingling with the water molecules of the beverage, displacing more co2 . more co2 released, more boom, more messy soddy pop.

Answer 4

I don't know for sure but it is so cool to see it.

Answer 5

my brother just did that for his science fair project...i don't know how it works. he jsut made them explode.

Answer 6

myth busters did it...!!!

Answer 7

no clue.