Why do mentos explode in coke?!
Why do mentos explode in coke?
my mom was just wondering so why does that happen?
Answers: Here's the question of the day... Why do Mentos mixed with soda produce this incredible eruption? You should know that there is considerable debate over how and why this works.
While we offer the most probable explanations below, we also understand and admit that other explanation could be possible... and we welcome your thoughts.
As you probably know, soda pop is basically sugar (or diet sweetener), flavoring, water and preservatives. The thing that makes soda bubbly is invisible carbon dioxide gas, which is pumped into bottles at the bottling factory using tons of pressure. Until you open the bottle and pour a glass of soda, the gas mostly stays suspended in the liquid and cannot expand to form more bubbles, which gases naturally do.
But there's more... If you shake the bottle and then open it, the gas is released from the protective hold of the water molecules and escapes with a whoosh, taking some of the soda along with it. What other ways can you cause the gas to escape? Just drop something into a glass of soda and notice how bubbles immediately form on the surface of the object.
For example, adding salt to soda causes it to foam up because thousands of little bubbles form on the surface of each grain of salt. Many scientists, including Lee Marek, claim that the Mentos phenomenon is a physical reaction, not a chemical one.
Water molecules strongly attract each other, linking together to form a tight mesh around each bubble of carbon dioxide gas in the soda. In order to form a new bubble, or even to expand a bubble that has already formed, water molecules must push away from each other. It takes extra energy to break this "surface tension."? In other words, water "resists" the expansion of bubbles in the soda.
When you drop the Mentos into the soda, the gelatin and gum arabic from the dissolving candy break the surface tension. This disrupts the water mesh, so that it takes less work to expand and form new bubbles. Each Mentos candy has thousands of tiny pits all over the surface. These tiny pits are called nucleation sites - perfect places for carbon dioxide bubbles to form. As soon as the Mentos hit the soda, bubbles form all over the surface of the candy.
Couple this with the fact that the Mentos candies are heavy and sink to the bottom of the bottle and you've got a double-whammy. When all this gas is released, it literally pushes all of the liquid up and out of the bottle in an incredible soda blast. You can see a similar effect when cooking potatoes or pasta are lowered into a pot of boiling water. The water will sometimes boil over because organic materials that leach out of the cooking potatoes or pasta disrupt the tight mesh of water molecules at the surface of the water, making it easier for bubbles and foam to form.
When a scoop of ice cream is added to root beer, the float? foams over for essentially the same reason. The surface tension of the root beer is lowered by gums and proteins from the melting ice cream, and the CO2 bubbles expand and release easily, creating a beautiful foam on top Next question... Why should you use diet Coke or diet Pepsi? The simple answer is that diet soda just works better than regular soda. Some people speculate that it has something to do with the artifical sweetner, but the verdict is still out. From what i know that is just and urban legend and doesn't happen. Because of all the sugar and caffine that is in there it just....POP.
I don't know. I don't know.
It does work, though. I've done it. But it has to be diet coke and mint mentos.
I don't know why it explodes, but take my word for it - it does! they do i have to try that!!! but im just guessing it is the chemical reaction coke is very acidic so i would say the mentos were ment to act against acid in order to freshen your breath and with so much acid around them they explode instead of melting slowly hope this helps They had this on mythbusters that airs on the discovery channel. Here is what they found:
Diet Coke and Mentos: CO2, aspartame, potassium benzoate, and caffeine in the Diet Coke, gum Arabic and gelatin in the Mentos, as well as the tiny pits on a Mentos candy (nucleation sites) are responsible for the explosive reaction of Diet Coke and Mentos.
The Diet Coke and Mentos segment wasn't a myth, and they admitted as much. They wanted to investigate all the varying explanations for the reaction they had heard. They first investigated the ingredients of Diet Coke and found that CO2, aspartame, potassium benzoate, and caffeine all contributed to the reaction. They next tested the ingredients of Mentos and isolated gum arabic and gelatin as causes. They also found that the small pits on Mentos contribute to the reaction by providing nucleation sites. With all this information in hand, they decided to build a rocket, which was a big failure. They then did a spout height competition, which beat the unofficial record of 18ft (they got 29+ft). for the same reason that when u add vinegar to baking soda, pop pop fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is? Actually, watch this cool video, which doesn't really explain why, but it shows it happening......for people who run out of ways to have fun.......like doing things like this....check it out man!
http://funmansion.com/html/mentos-coke-p...