Yesterday, in my infinite wisdom I thought it wouldn't make too big of an explosion if we only dropped in a couple Mentos. So me and my trusty PA (remember, every bad idea gets started with someone saying "that's a really good idea") went into the breakroom with a bottle of Diet Coke and a roll of Mentos. I placed the bottle in the sink, dropped in three Mentos and jumped back. The explosion was ridiculous. I was covered in soda. Because we did it in the sink the explosion hit the bottom of the cabinet and went everywhere. The entire breakroom was covered in Diet Coke, about 3/4 of the bottle was expelled. So we cleaned the best we could and tried under better circumstances to recreate it.
We waited for this morning and sent our reporter on the roof to do the experiment. With a poncho. We actually did 3 takes and edited them all together into a really cool video. I hope some of you saw it. The problem as I explained before, the more fun something is, the harder it is to pull off. You wouldn't believe the difficulty we had in getting security open the door for us.
Anyway, everyone wants to know why it works and does it work with other sodas and candies.
From the Journal: "What's the chemistry behind the geyser? San Diego chemist Neal Langerman suggests the answer lies in the higher level of carbon dioxide in diet sodas than other sodas and the porous surface area of a Mentos. Mr. Langerman, the past chairman of the division of chemical health and safety at the American Chemical Society, said similar results wouldn't be achieved with an M&M, for instance, "which is really solid." Diet Coke has more carbon dioxide than Diet Pepsi, he says."
So the best combination is Diet Coke and Mentos. Some others might work, but not as well. By the way, the mess we made in the breakroom yesterday was the most fun I've ever had at work. I strongly recommend doing this yourself in your backyard. Beers, I think Evan and Dylan would love it.
5 comments:
Sounds like you have a fun job.
Douche...you see fountains of diet coke shooting like 40 feet into the air, and you think "oh it'll be aight in the kitchen". Good reasoning. Funny though. I saw the bellaggio one a week or so ago....definitely gonna try it eventually.
The great Peter North experiment is a hit..
When we saw it on the web these guys had intricate contraptions to drop 14 mentos in at a time, through a tiny hole drilled into the cap. I thought the explosion would have been significantly smaller with fewer Mentos.
In retrospect I realize that the sink wasn't a bad idea, it was that there was a cabinet over the sink. In a bathroom sink, it would have gone straight up, and mostly straight down. But that wouldn't have been as fun. You could easily do this in your tub and not make too big of a mess. But outside is probably better.
I like the one with the girl who chugs pepsi and eats mentos...
Post a Comment