Yesterday, I put to the test a scientific theory held by several of the students in my orientation group- namely myself. For a fun time, drop a few mentos in a diet soda and watch the explosion. My fellow orientation students and myself (read: they all stepped back, while I braved the chemical unknown, possible wardrobe malfunction, and humiliation) performed this experiment under the flagpole in front of half of our freshmen students. In the end, lots of laughs were had with imagining all the ways to blow up stuff, about 4 seconds of excitement, and small amount of cleanup.
See the video for an amazing show, not nearly as impressive as my one bottle with only two mentos in it (sarcasm drips as thickly as the diet coke that spewed all over the sidewalk).
Just for the scientist in you:
It is possible to cause a sudden high-pressure release of carbon dioxide by inserting multiple Mentos into a container of Diet Coke. Mythbusters found this is caused becuse of nucleation as well as certain catalysts in the Diet Coke and Mentos themselves. The phenomenon is described in some detail by the General Chemistry Online! FAQ, which also attributes it to nucleation.[2] However it should be noted that it still poses health risks due to its syrup content. This does not appear to work with the Australian formula of the product. While there is a release of carbon dioxide similar to that observed on Mythbusters, the effects are nowhere near as spectacular.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke "Trivia" 18:44, 31 August 2006. Accessed 10:50pm 8/31/06
It is possible to cause a sudden high-pressure release of carbon dioxide by inserting multiple Mentos into a container of Diet Coke. Mythbusters found this is caused becuse of nucleation as well as certain catalysts in the Diet Coke and Mentos themselves. The phenomenon is described in some detail by the General Chemistry Online! FAQ, which also attributes it to nucleation.[2] However it should be noted that it still poses health risks due to its syrup content. This does not appear to work with the Australian formula of the product. While there is a release of carbon dioxide similar to that observed on Mythbusters, the effects are nowhere near as spectacular.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke "Trivia" 18:44, 31 August 2006. Accessed 10:50pm 8/31/06
And... for the little boy in you:
If you'd like to know how to make a diet coke/mentos bottle rocket, check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2X0juwHkU
Possible Future Post: This fun activity got me to thinking about what "initiation" would look like at a seminary. So, I might try and get my fellow seminarians to help me come up with a top ten list of Initiations seen at seminaries. (If you have good ideas, email 'em to me.)
1 comment:
i've seen the mentos thing before, but that video was CRAZY! i'm thinking youth game for this sunday night - sweet.
so initiations... hmmm... you could always shave eyebrows. people look fun with no eyebrows. or you could duck tape someone to a chair and force them to watch that left behind movie! that's brutal!
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