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!!!