Run! RUN!
As a follow-up to the post about Skittlebrau (Skittles in beer), here is another put-candy-in-beverage-and-see-what-happens post….
Evidently, if you add Mentos to soda pop, the soda erupts like a geyser. I mean ERUPTS! The videos below show people doing it and the soda shoots out 10-15 feet from a 2-liter bottle of soda. I bet the first time someone accidentally figured this out there was a HUGE mess. This looks cool enough to try it myself (outside of course). I hate to waste Mentos, but this is in the name of science!
Here is an explanation from The Museum of Hoaxes:
Mentos contains a chemical known as ARABIC GUM (this is the ingredient that makes the mint “chewy”). This ingredient causes the surface tension of the water molecules to break even more easily, releasing more carbon dioxide gas at an astounding rate! …..The gas causes pressure to rapidly build inside the bottle which thrusts the soda upwards in a wonderful fountain-like BLAST!
[Read more]
Who knew Mentos could be such fun? Not only are they the Freshmaker, they are the Messmaker!
- Video of some newscasters trying it
- Video of a teen trying it with a 2-liter (sound is LOUD – turn down your volume first)
- Video of a teen trying it with a can of soda (not as impressive)
- Choreographed Mentos and soda explosions
- Full Explanation from Museum of Hoaxes
- Mentos website
candy mint mints mentos soda sodapop science experiment fun funny food explosions coke fountain diet coke
We just tried this at my office with pretty mixed results. Are there conditions that make this work really well? Like a 10 foot geyser? We used a (cold) 2 Litre bottle of diet coke and some mixed fruit mentos. Went up about 3 feet. meh.
RESPONSE: I haven’t tried it myself, but now that you say this, maybe I will. All the videos I have seen show it erupting really high. Seems like warm soda would work better to me, but I don’t know. Thanks for the comment!
October 28th, 2005 at 1:37 am–Brian
Why does this reaction not happen when you eat both the mentos and drink the soda. What keeps your body from exploding?
October 31st, 2005 at 2:49 amtry warmer soda that hasn’t been opened.
packer fan, have you actually tried eating the two? sounds dangerous. and plus much of the co2 in the soda bubbles out during drinking; that’s where the fizzing sensation comes from.
November 17th, 2005 at 11:04 amUse coke and lifesavors. Screw a hole in the lid of a coke bottle, stick a straw through the hole. On the bottom side of the lid, string life savers on straw and put gum at the end so that the life savers won’t fall off. Screw on lid, hold bottle down as you pull the straw, causing all the life savers to fall through at once. It works really well, especially when all the coke is pressurized and has to go through that small hole you made in the lid, causing it to go higher…..It’s beauiful :D
December 4th, 2005 at 1:59 amDoes it matter which flavour mentos you use, like do different flavours produce better effects?
January 15th, 2006 at 10:36 amit works well if u just put sugar in instead of mentoses
March 14th, 2006 at 10:23 pmWhat would happen if you put mentos and soda into a water ballon and poked a hole in it? Would the water ballon explode?
RESPONSE: Good question! I might have to buy some Mentos and try that!
May 24th, 2006 at 12:51 pm–Brian
I was watching this thing on TV where they were having a bunch of bottles and basically making a show out of this. I mean I think that everyone should try it. Plus…poprocks work good with soda!
June 30th, 2006 at 4:51 pmHave you ever put vanilla ice cream in Root Beer? Same thing. It’s better to put the ice cream in first, then dump RB on top. Otherwise it foams all over.
Letterman had some guys do a choreographed mentos-and-diet-Coke thing last night (6/29). It was like watching wet fireworks. Very funny.
June 30th, 2006 at 4:54 pmhah, me and me friends tried it n it waz soo funny!!! me friend got wet wit coke n the rest of uz wer like, whoa
RESPONSE: Well spoken! :)
July 30th, 2006 at 7:40 pm–Brian
The MythBusters just did a show on why Mentos and cola do what they do, and they discovered that thousands of tiny pits on the surface of the Mentos cause the sudden release of carbon dioxide, not necessarily the gum arabic. The CO sort of condenses in these pits and then has nowhere else to go but out the top of the bottle. They also found you can get a greater result by using rock salt.
RESPONSE: Thanks for spoling it for me! I haven’t watched it yet! :)
August 11th, 2006 at 11:22 amHere’s our post about the Mythbusters.
:)
–Brian
Actually to those who question the mentos theory…
1st off – DKM: Mint Mentos work better than Fruit ones. Watch Mythbusters sometime and it’ll rerun i suppose.
2ndly – Daftlad – Mint works the best (see above)
3rdly- tim – sugar does NOT work as well as Mint Mentos. try it sometime.
Oh and to the website: You should try this, i haven’t done it but heard it works:
August 17th, 2006 at 1:33 amget a medium sized PVC pipe and put as much diet coke as possible in it. Then get a whole package of mentos and put them in all at once. It should be huge!!
hey i ‘m making a movie called dumbass.. in one of the things i’m going to be drinking a 2L thing of coke and then eating 2 mentos..
is this going to kill me?
RESPONSE: The Mythbusters ate mentos and drank Diet Coke and are still alive and kicking. Your mileage may vary.
August 23rd, 2006 at 10:06 pm–Brian
So, someone should fill a bath with Diet Coke (stock up on the 2 liters), JUMP IN, and then have someone throw in about 70 mentos! OOOH, I can only imagine that mess. At least Diet Coke isn’t sticky.
August 24th, 2006 at 1:33 pmWhen I tried this experiment I was in school and we were surprised by the reaction the explosion was so high .
September 15th, 2006 at 1:01 pmim doing this as my science fair project for my physics class…is there anything i should know??!? suggestions?!?!? im suppose to be measuring the height and how far it goes when it shoots up…is there any more i can do to make my project better?!?!
September 18th, 2006 at 8:55 pmI’ve actually done a trick that I find much cooler, with Diet Coke and Mentos.
You drop the whole tube of Mentos, in the foil but not the paper, into a 2 Litre bottle of lukewarm Diet Coke. You screw the lid on tight, shake hard for about 5 seconds, the loosen the cap so it’s barely on, and throw down the bottle, cap-side down.
The entire bottle shoots about 20 feet in the air. I didn’t videotape it, but a video of the same trick can be seen on youtube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkkOUPYNs7I
This is the most insanely awesome trick ever.
September 22nd, 2006 at 3:25 pm[...] Following in the footsteps of Mentos and Diet Coke, here is a video that demonstrates what happens when you add various candies to other liquids. Candy corn+ root beer is first, followed by SweeTarts + Sprite, and finally Toucan Toes (I had never heard of them either) + Milk. The results of all three are pretty funny thanks to some clever video editing. [...]
October 3rd, 2006 at 10:40 amthe male booty was awsome dudes!! cutey wish it was the blue shirt guy though
October 17th, 2006 at 4:37 pmif u put smarties in dr.pepper they will burst the can open
RESPONSE: US or European Smarties? And how do you put candy inside a can?
October 17th, 2006 at 8:30 pm–Brian
[...] “Apparently the reason for this reaction is that Mentos contains a chemical known as ARABIC GUM (this is the ingredient that makes the mint “chewyâ€). This ingredient causes the surface tension of the water molecules to break even more easily, releasing more carbon dioxide gas at an astounding rate! …..The gas causes pressure to rapidly build inside the bottle which thrusts the soda upwards in a wonderful fountain-like BLAST!” [...]
October 30th, 2006 at 5:26 pmu don’t have any mentos explosion sites.
October 30th, 2006 at 9:33 pmthis sounds fun so I’m going to try it for the science fair that I’m going to be in.
November 2nd, 2006 at 3:30 pmLOVE ALWAYS BRIDGETTE
this is really cool +))))))
November 6th, 2006 at 6:23 pmMy friend tried it before with two mentos and it exploded try 20..
I LOVE CANDY
November 13th, 2006 at 9:13 pmi have tried itr many of times and it exploded only about three times
November 14th, 2006 at 7:55 pmis the explosion worth the cost of THE Coke and Mentos?
November 19th, 2006 at 1:23 pmThis has nothing to do with Arabic Gum. Pepsi has Arabic Gum too, if you look at the ingredients.
November 27th, 2006 at 5:46 amWe had tried it with 1 mentos & small amount of coco cola in a beaker. we didn’t get any result.can we get reasons. how to improve the results?
December 16th, 2006 at 6:58 ami rerally need ingrediants of mentos!!!!!!!!
December 16th, 2006 at 4:09 pmI LOVE THIS POP EXPLOTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 20th, 2006 at 11:39 amNEVER let the soda sit opened, it lets the bubbles/fizz die and u don’t get as good a geyser
January 12th, 2007 at 8:20 pmi’m doing that for my science experiment =-]
January 21st, 2007 at 5:27 pmOk, here’s what you do, take a 2 liter bottle of coke, add 2 packs (if possible) with only foil on them, put cap on tight shake for 5 seconds, and run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(otherwise u’ll be covered in plastic and coke and mentos)
P.S. When you do this, don’t complain to me if u get hit by a mentos (it leaves welts-so i’ve heard).
January 24th, 2007 at 8:56 pmI’m doing this for my science fair project… i’m trying lots of things, so hopefully it works for me! Got any sugestions?
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:57 pm1st thing, my email is not real
February 6th, 2007 at 9:49 amTo thomas, who posted vry long ago, mythbusters ppl simply put the concoction into their mouth, they nvr swallow it. If u do so, the consequences might be dire.
get a pvc pipe (30 to 40 feet long) and put 5-10 packs of mentos into a gallon of diet coke then shake it up and itll go 50 to 60 feet in the air.
February 21st, 2007 at 3:36 pmyummy but ow
February 26th, 2007 at 12:36 pm?
February 26th, 2007 at 12:37 pmow it hurts
February 26th, 2007 at 12:39 pmI’m doing a science fair project some what on this topic, and I was wondering if anyone knows if the reaction has anything to do with acidity level of soda.
February 27th, 2007 at 5:54 pmi tried it for a scence project and it got at least 12 feet high tks.
March 4th, 2007 at 3:48 pmya i did it for a science fair project too but but i did it on temperature of mentos. Turns out frozen worked the best because it enhanced gum arabic density. anyways, if you need reasearch help on it, here is my review of literature i got from like 10 sites. yes, yes, i know.. its long.. but it has lots of valuable information if you read it
Diet Coke
March 7th, 2007 at 7:16 pmDiet Coke consists of carbonated water, caramel coloring, aspartame (a sweetener), phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate, natural flavors, citric acid, and caffeine. Carbon dioxide is pumped into bottles in a factory to provide bubbles and fizz. The gas in the Diet Coke is trapped by the water and stays suspended in the bottle so gas bubbles can not form easily. One way to release gas bubbles from carbon dioxide is to shake the bottle and open it, causing the “water mesh†to release carbon dioxide gas from the liquid in the bottle.
Mint Mentos
Mentos are made up of sugar, glucose syrup, hydrogenated coconut oil, gelatin, dextrin, natural flavoring, corn starch, and gum Arabic. The surface of a Mento is filled with nucleation sites, which are tiny cracks and pits which are ideal places for bubbles to form.
Physical Reactions
Adding Mentos to Diet Coke results in a physical reaction. There are two reasons why the Diet Coke blasts out. Water molecules attract and link together, forming a tight mesh around each bubble in the Diet Coke. For bubbles to form more easily or for an existing bubble to expand, the water molecules must push away from each other, breaking the surface tension, which prevents most bubbles and carbon dioxide from escaping. The Mentos resolve this problem. The ingredients from the Mentos, gelatin and gum Arabic (ingredients that make the Mentos chewy) break the surface tension. This disrupts the water mesh and allows bubbles to form and expand a lot easier.
The second reason Mentos and Diet Coke create a reaction is the nucleation sites on a Mento. Mint Mentos produce better results. This is because Mint Mentos have a matte finish, which means that the surface of Mint Mentos are rough, having more nucleation sites. The fruit flavored Mentos have a gloss finish, meaning that the surface of the fruit Mento is smooth and has less nucleation sites. Nucleation causes a phase transition in a small area, like the bottle of Diet Coke, creating bubbles from the liquid. When the Mentos are added, the suspended Mentos provide more nucleation sites. This is called heterogeneous nucleation. Thousands of bubbles form on the surface of the Mentos. Since the Mentos sink, the reaction occurs all the way to the bottom of the bottle. The escaping bubbles intensify into foam and the pressure inside the bottle rises significantly. Then, the bubbles explode upwards into a geyser. Since the mesh becomes disrupted by the bubbles, it causes even more bubbles to form from the nucleation, resulting from a massive explosion from the Diet Coke.
will you tell us what to do ao we can finsh our project?
March 15th, 2007 at 12:17 pmwe need a reply by monday.
P.S plzzz were doing the same veribls
Alex what websight did you go to?
March 19th, 2007 at 12:16 pmwill you plz reply.
i am working on mintos and soda.
excuse me but,do u need 2 have DIET coke? or can the regular work 2?
April 4th, 2007 at 1:26 pmi tried it for a science fair project and i need research for it so thank you for all the info.
April 21st, 2007 at 3:16 pmWhat do you think would happen if i put mentos into a balloon with soda in it? What would happen if i put mints into a container filled with soda?
May 7th, 2007 at 12:19 pmi have to try the one where you put 2 packs in and it explodes.
May 12th, 2007 at 12:10 pmI have done this mint mentos explosion for my science experiment and i was in for a treat.i did not think it was going to work. it did and it went 15-16 feet hight and my brother wanted to help so i said “hold the bottle” thinking he would move when i droped the mentos in, and he did’nt. the soda was no diet and that means it was stiky. it got all over him and he started crying cause it got in his eyes funny rite
May 18th, 2007 at 3:51 pmMINT IS THE BOMB!!! GRACIAS
June 7th, 2007 at 5:25 pmWe did this in my Chemistry class this past year multiple times. It works REALLY well with DIET coke. Also, it does really well if you are fast about it. Open the bottle quickly, dump all the mentos in, and back off! When we did this in the classroom [inside a little kid pool] we had one of them touch the ceiling! It is a bunch of fun, so if you do it right, you will have great results!
June 8th, 2007 at 3:12 amI did this in summer school could you explian to a kid in gr 3-4 and gr6 thanks
July 21st, 2007 at 1:07 pmBut have you checked out what can happen when you mix beer + mentos?
http://www.psstit.com/share/carlsberg-mentos.html
July 27th, 2007 at 2:43 pmI have a question- is there a difference if I use cold coke or warm coke? (trying to do this as a science experiment) And could it just be regular coke?
September 9th, 2007 at 6:42 pmAlso- what if you don’t use the whole 2 liter, I only plan to use a paper cup size amount of coke. Will it still work?
September 9th, 2007 at 6:44 pmcool wats up
October 25th, 2007 at 1:33 pmi tried diet coke and reaguler coke with two mentos diet went 1 foot high and coke2 foot high
October 25th, 2007 at 1:37 pmhey thomas ya i heard it will kill u from an email forward and it said a boy did not know about the explosion thing and he was drinking coke and eating mentos and about 30 mintutes later his stomach started to bled and he died
October 25th, 2007 at 4:50 pmi am doing this for my science project.could anyone help?
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:09 pmgreat sci fair project
November 7th, 2007 at 1:58 pmdude im doing this for my science fair project, but my teacher is making me time it instead of seeing how high it goes….:p…. at least it better than my project las year…haha i got honorable mention.
:p
November 17th, 2007 at 5:47 pmIM TRYING IT
November 19th, 2007 at 10:15 pmi did this for a science fair project and it was awesome. the highest it went was 20 in. not a lot but it was really cool. people, you really have to try it.
December 9th, 2007 at 9:55 pmyesterday i did this once and the pop explode it 22ft of the ground with one mento
December 18th, 2007 at 12:18 pmIts my best scince fair project
December 18th, 2007 at 12:29 pmI did it in the classroom and the diet cola went all over in the row were i set!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 20th, 2007 at 10:16 pmhave you ever tried coke and baking soda it actually explodes!
January 14th, 2008 at 6:26 pmsince this is my science fair project i reasrch that its not the coke that explodes its the co2. if your asking what is co2 , its the fizz inside the bubbles.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:53 pmHI!!!!
1stly- u cant die from eating mentos and coke.
I’m doing a project on it. I’m using Mug root beer, sierra mist and mt. dew. I’m seeing if the different ingrediants will cause the mentos to shoot the sodas higher.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:03 pmwhat will happen if you eat soda and mentos at the same time????
will the same thing happen as the one in the bottle….????
pls….help me im doing it for my science fair project…
February 27th, 2008 at 2:52 pmdo you shake the soda bottle? tell me FAST!! i need it by Thursday Feb. 28.
February 28th, 2008 at 4:31 pmput some mentos in the balloon and put th balloon on top of the bottle and the balloon will keep growing to all of the acid is all gone out of it
March 4th, 2008 at 7:32 amim gonna do it for my science project it works check it out on youtube k good ye lol
April 7th, 2008 at 5:21 pmim gonna do it for my science project it works check it out on youtube k good ye lol
April 7th, 2008 at 5:22 pmWe want to do mentos and soda 4 our science project and I (cookie & cream) just want 2 see something blow up!!!!!!!!!
April 29th, 2008 at 9:38 amwe were really good during sciece one week, so our teacher took us onto the feilds and let us try to explode some soda. it didnt really work at first (although ive seen it b4) so she tried to put on the cap and shake it. it went all over our teacher! it was almost a year ago, and we still wont let her forget about it.
September 10th, 2008 at 7:35 pmdo i have to shake the bottle of diet cola and mentos and then put it on the grand and uscrew the cap to get it to erupt or do i just drop the mentos in the 2-liter bottle
September 30th, 2008 at 6:13 pmi am doing a project for school and i need to research what temp works best i cant find it anywhere help!!!!!!
October 7th, 2008 at 4:07 pmi want to do something during my science fair…like make something blow up.
October 20th, 2008 at 2:49 pmdoes any body have any ideas??
wati faf what does the mentos do?
The reason for the explosion isn’t because of the arabic gum its because of nucleation sites on the surface of the mento which lets carbon dioxide form in to bubbles very rapidly which causes the explosion.
October 29th, 2008 at 7:32 pmI think the arabic gum is the ingredient that makes the explosion i just checked it out at this website!!!!!! its awesome
November 15th, 2008 at 5:55 pmbtw i love this website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its soo cool! i like the picture where the soda explodes like a volcano! lol!
November 15th, 2008 at 6:49 pmim doing a science fair project on this so thank you for helping
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:47 amME AMO CHOCOLATE. Tengo Ambre
February 13th, 2009 at 4:33 pmI HOPE THIS IS FUN!!!!!
October 17th, 2011 at 4:08 pmhi my name is marley and i am 15 years old and i am wondering what are the chemicals that react in mentoes and club soda
November 15th, 2011 at 8:10 pmif you eat a pack of mentos then drink a ton of soda will it still react this way inside of you?
January 5th, 2012 at 12:35 pmOMG that shizz is tight man DUBSTEP!!!! is awesome yup. mmmhmmm and KLAINE forever. Fo’sho bro fo’sho ok mmm but really this is a great experiment to do and is sooo fun. also you can put it upside down and the bottle will go well y’know, far. xD LOVE, person. Ahemmm Awkward Penguin Moment… Ok ima just leave… ok? ok. uh bye
January 7th, 2012 at 1:03 amOMG that shizz is tight man DUBSTEP!!!! is awesome yup. mmmhmmm and KLAINE forever. Fo’sho bro fo’sho ok mmm but really this is a great experiment to do and is sooo fun. also you can put it upside down and the bottle will go well y’know, far. xD LOVE, person. Ahemmm Awkward Penguin Moment… Ok ima just leave… ok? ok. uh byeee
January 7th, 2012 at 1:04 amOMG that shizz is tight man DUBSTEP!!!! is awesome yup. mmmhmmm and KLAINE forever. Fo’sho bro fo’sho ok mmm but really this is a great experiment to do and is sooo fun. also you can put it upside down and the bottle will go well y’know, far. xD LOVE, person. Ahemmm Awkward Penguin Moment… Ok ima just leave… ok? ok. uh byeeee
January 7th, 2012 at 1:05 amOMFG THERE IS A LEA MICHELE FAN RIGHT THERE ASKDJDBCYDBSN TALK TO ME NOW. XD OH GEEZ IMUST BE ANNOYING APPLES AND CHEESE
January 7th, 2012 at 1:07 amGasp you toooo?!?!?! GO GLEE!
January 7th, 2012 at 1:08 amWow.GLEE GLEE GLEE
January 7th, 2012 at 1:10 amSJHDIUEGHDDDDDDDDI
January 7th, 2012 at 1:11 amGLEEEEEEEEEEE’
GLEEEEEEEEEEE”
GLEEEEEEEEEEE’
What were they thinking? Anyone can leave their turdd here like Im doing and Its a bunch of crapp. Wow im blowing it up and idgaf
January 7th, 2012 at 1:12 amI am Chuck Norris.
January 7th, 2012 at 1:13 amok?
February 20th, 2012 at 10:15 pm