Mentos and Diet Soda

Mentos and Diet Soda Eruption: One of the most captivating experiments made popular by Steve Spangler.

Supplies Needed:
Various types of diet and/or regular soda (diet has a greater reaction)
Several packs of mentos candy (about 1/2 pack per soda bottle
Funnel or tube (optional)

Procedure:
(Experiment should take place outdoors)

1. Unscrew the soda bottle lid and place a funnel or tube on top (or use your hand as a funnel or tube) to drop the Mentos in the soda.

I asked the kids to make some observations of the Mentos Candy: Describe the candy.  How does it smell?  Taste?  Look?

2. Drop all the mentos, AT THE SAME TIME, into the soda bottle, then QUICKLY RUN AWAY!!! Warning: This is tricky and may take practice.

 If done properly, a huge soda eruption will come flying out of the bottle!!!

Science behind the Fun:
The Mentos reacts with the carbon dioxide in the soda causing foam to spray out of the bottle.
The tiny holes on the surface of the mint mentos expedites the carbon dioxide reaction.
More information may be read at http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_Coke_and_Mentos_eruption

Upon completion of the Mentos and Diet soda experiment, we decided to take it a step further.  We added more Mentos to the Diet Soda tightly secured the lid and each child rapidly shook the soda bottle.  We removed the soda lid and observed a very small reaction of bubbles at the bottom of the soda bottle.

Inflating Balloons using the Energy of Soda

Inflate balloons using soda energy

Materials
Bottle of soda
Balloon

Procedure
1. Stretch the balloon in all directions to cause the balloon to be more flexible.
2. Place the opening of balloon over the top of the soda bottle.
3. Shake the soda vigorously. Observe that the balloon inflates and soda rises into the balloon.

Science behind the fun....
Shaking the soda bottle causes the carbon dioxide (gas) inside the soda, as well as, the soda to rise up. The sudden release of gas eludes the bottle, but not the balloon, causing it to inflate.



Wikipedia Definition of Carbonation:
Carbonation is the process of dissolving carbon dioxide in a liquid. The process usually involves carbon dioxide under high pressure. When the pressure is reduced, the carbon dioxide is released from the solution as small bubbles, which causes the solution to become effervescent, or fizzy. An example of carbonation is the dissolving of carbon dioxide in water, resulting in carbonated water.