Cola Mentos fountain

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A two-liter Diet Coke bottle right after a Mentos was thrown in
From left to right: Five Mentos per bottle with Perrier , regular Cola , Sprite and Cola Light

The Cola Mentos fountain (also known as the Cola Mentos Geyser or Cola Mentos Experiment ) is created by adding a Mentos peppermint to a bottle of Cola , causing the carbonated drink to erupt out of the bottle like a geyser . The experiment was first demonstrated on a television show in 1999. Another demonstration on television turned into a viral video on YouTube in 2005 , which resulted in the publication of more similar videos.

history

In the 1980s, life savers were used in the USA to create small geysers: the candy with a hole was tied together with a pipe cleaner and thrown into a carbonated drink. At the end of the 1990s, the manufacturer of these sweets increased their diameter so that they no longer fit through the neck of a beverage bottle. Science teachers found that Mentos peppermints produced the same effect when thrown into a Coke bottle.

Lee Marek and Marek's Kid Scientists performed the Mentos and Cola experiment on the 1999 Late Show with David Letterman . Steve Spangler , a science teacher, gave a demonstration on KUSA-TV in Denver, Colorado in March 2002 . The experiment became an internet sensation in September 2005. It was screened in the 2006 TV series Mythbusters . Spangler signed a licensing agreement with Perfetti Van Melle , the maker of Mentos, after inventing a device that made it easier to get the Mentos candy into the bottle, creating a large geyser. The toy manufacturer Be Amazing Toys from Spangler sold the geyser tube toys from February 2007. In November 2014, a Guinness Book record was set with 4,334 geysers triggered simultaneously.

Mechanism of action

As soon as the mints are thrown into the drink, bubbles form on its rough surface and rise upwards. Meanwhile, the mints sink to the bottom of the bottle. These two factors lead to the eruption-like geyser. The chemical compounds potassium benzoate and carbon dioxide contained in cola, as well as the aspartame contained in Diet Coke , together with the gum arabic contained in Mentos, lead to excessive foaming.

The surface structure of Mentos has many small holes that greatly increase the total surface area on which nucleation can take place, so that massive carbon dioxide bubbles are formed, which rise and cause the eruption-like gushing out. This hypothesis was substantiated when rock salt was used to induce nucleation. Tonya Coffey, a physicist at Appalachian State University in Boone , North Carolina , confirmed that the rough surface helps trigger nucleation. The geyser occurs with conventional beverages as well as with diet drinks, the latter being easier to wipe off than the sticky sugar solutions . But Coffey found out that aspartame in diet drinks reduces surface tension and thus creates a more effective geyser. Caffeine has no accelerating effect.

Web links

Commons : Cola Mentos Fountains  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Product alienation: Coca Cola doesn't like Mentos fountain. Mirror online. June 13, 2006.
  2. Hazel Muir: Science of Mentos-Diet Coke Explosions Explained . June 15, 2008. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  3. ^ A b Michelle Bova: How Things Work: Mentos in Diet Coke . February 19, 2007. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  4. a b c d e f g h i Steve Spangler: Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes . Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2010.
  5. Clayton Neuman: The TIME 100 - Are They Worthy? . TIME. April 20, 2007. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  6. a b Steve Spangler . 9 News. August 16, 2011. Archived from the original on June 22, 2014. Retrieved on January 13, 2015.
  7. Steve Spangler Science: Orchestrated Chaos: A Mentos Tribute to Eepybird.com . June 26, 2006. Archived from the original on July 27, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 13, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stevespanglerscience.com
  8. SpanglerScienceTV: Original Mentos Diet Coke Geyser . YouTube. June 6, 2012. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  9. Diet Coke and Mentos, Near Death . 239Media. August 2, 2006. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  10. Suzanne Baker: Naperville students integral to classic TV bits, but will the fun continue? . May 23, 2014. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  11. a b c Tonya Shea Coffey: Diet Coke and Mentos: What is really behind this physical reaction? . Retrieved April 17, 2019.
  12. The Original Mentos Geyser Video . Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  13. a b c d e Mythbusters: Diet Coke and Mentos MiniMyth . Discovery Channel . Archived from the original on May 2, 2012. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  14. ^ Al Lewis: Mentos-soda mix a mint for scientist . November 7, 2006. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  15. Greg Sandoval: Toying with the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment . February 13, 2007. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  16. Most Mentos and Soda Fountains . Guinness World Records . November 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  17. a b c d Daven Hiskey: Why Do Mentos and Diet Coke React? . Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  18. ^ "Mentos and Soda" . MythBusters . Season 4. Episode 14. Posted August 9, 2006. Discovery Channel .
  19. Hazel Muir: Science of Mentos-Diet Coke explosions explained . In: New Scientist . June 12, 2008. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  20. Tonya Shea Coffey: Diet Coke and Mentos: What is really behind this physical reaction? . In: American Journal of Physics . 76, No. 6, June 2008, pp. 551-557. doi : 10.1119 / 1.2888546 .