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June 13, 2006

Mentos & Diet Coke: I Wish I Were In College Again.

By: The Dude on the Right
I guess this phenomenon started back in April 2006 when some folks found out that if you dropped a couple of Mentos candies into a 2 liter of Diet Coke, well, the Diet Coke erupted.  Sometimes I'm too big and slow in finding out about these things, but I blame most of this by being out of college and not even thinking about trying wacky stuff like this anymore, namely dropping some Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke.  But this morning I was listening to the radio here in Chi-Town, and Johnny Brandmeier was reading a story from, I think The Wall Street Journal, talking about mixing said candies into said soft drink.  Supposedly a geyser erupts, and Johnny B. did so by trying it and taking out some ceiling tiles in a bathroom (at least Johnny listened to his producer, Guy, and didn't try it in the broadcast studio).  I really meant to pick up a couple of 2 liters and some Mentos today, and try the experiment for myself, but I was too lazy so I just hunted out some videos on the internet, and none lived up to the folks at EepyBird.com, with a click to it at the right.  It's complete with cool music, they try to compete with the fountains at the Bellagio Fountains, and it is fantastic.  I know some of their secrets to getting different eruption heights, thanks to my extensive engineering background, and even their simple yet inventive way of setting off the "charges" as they would be.

There are lots of videos out there in internet-land about this phenomenon, so all you pretty much need to do is type something like "Diet Coke Mentos Video" into your favorite search engine.  Some show what look like college dudes (oh, times like this I miss college) tossing lightly capped versions of the same experiment, resulting in rocketing 2-liter bottles, and some just show failed experiments.  Chemistry is fun sometimes, and if I were a high school teacher trying to teach a class, on the interaction of various chemicals, this one is a hell of a lot more fun, and a hell of a lot safer, than mixing sodium and water, at least I think that is the bad one.  It's been a while since I took Chemistry, so please don't try to mix anything.

If you are younger you might be more likely to say something like "What happens if I drop a Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke?"  If you are older, that question never seems to come around anymore.  Sometimes, in this case, if you are an older, wouldn't it have been fun to find this out and show your kids?  I admit I've lost a lot of this experimenting, but maybe we shouldn't.  This is too philosophical.  Just get out there with your 2 liter bottle of Diet Coke and some Mentos and see it explode.  You might need a shower, but have fun.  And wear safety goggles.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Posted by Rightdude at 8:11 PM | Comments (0)