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Mentos + Diet Coke: An Illustrated Guide

Everyone's heard that adding Mentos to Diet Coke produces a strong reaction, but there are few details available about how to coordinate the parts to get a good geyser. 

 

EepyBird.com has a great video of a Bellagio-like fountain of Diet Coke + Mentos reactions.  They also have instructions for creating your own. 

 

This is how we implemented the EepyBird system.

You need these parts:

 

1) some number of two-liter bottles of soda (Diet Coke seems to be preferred).

 

2) A box of Mentos.

 

3) A few paper clips.

 

4) A drill.

First: drill a hole in the cap of the soda bottle.  We tried two sizes.  The smaller one made a spray, and the larger (5/32") made a nice thin geyser stream.

 

 

 

Next, straighten a paper clip, with a small angle at the end, like a very long thin L.  This will hold the Mentos in the neck of the bottle.

 

 

Drill some small holes through the center of the Mentos.  These need to be large enough to put the paper clip through.

 

 

Thread the Mentos onto the paper clip holder.  The foot of the L will hold them on.

 

Finish the stack with the bottle cap.

Clip another paper clip across the holder so that when the bottle cap is screwed onto the bottle, the Mentos are suspended over the soda.

Time to head outside to try it all out!

 

 

Insert the Mentos cartridge into the neck of the bottle.  Depending on how many Mentos you use (nine is good for a two-liter bottle), you may need to spill out a little soda.  It's important that the Mentos not touch the soda!

 

Carefully screw the top on tightly.

Now pull off the upper paper clip, and stand back!

 

Here you can just make out the very beginning of the reaction.

If all went well, you'll get a geyser 10 to 20 feet high, that lasts for 20 to 30 seconds!

 

That straight white line in the photo is a strong geyser of diet coke.

 

 

 

 

When everything settles down, most of the two liters of soda has been ejected out the top of the bottle.

 

Good fun!

 

 

 

 

 

I made this story with Tabblo, a great way to put your photos on the web and share them with the people you want.

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COMMENTS
Jamesvd said at 7:12 p.m. on Jun 11, 2006:
I actually heard the interview with the two guyswho did the "Bellagio" fountain with this idea on NPR. Thanks for putting this up here, I was curious about how it was done.
Lieselp said at 7:20 p.m. on Jun 11, 2006:
I guess the week of solid rain got to you as well. Looks like a good way to kill an hour and entertain the kids!
Sbatchelder said at 9:32 p.m. on Jun 11, 2006:
I'll be interested to see the effect on the grass, as well!
Sbatchelder said at 9:06 p.m. on Jun 12, 2006:
Ed says: you've discovered the beginnings of rocketry. Someone should consider building a diet coke and mentos powered rocketship (hint hint).
Mentosoda said at 7:17 a.m. on Jun 15, 2006:
A Soda+Mentos powered rocketship ?
here you are : The MentoSoda Rocket Experiment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnFc7GyPY7Q

Cheers

Hubb from Team Beauce Express
Lorenz_sell said at 5:40 p.m. on Jun 20, 2006:
wow, that's pretty impressive. i'll have to try that at home.
Stclairej said at 8:31 a.m. on Jun 21, 2006:
Thank you...you are doing important work.
Rfoote said at 5:52 p.m. on Jun 27, 2006:
Well, THAT's how to get the Mentos in all of a sudden. We had tried funneling them into the open bottle (short fat stream), and crushing and dropping them in (they stuck to our hands!). However, we did have fun, produce a small geyser, and boosted Diet Coke sales considerably.
Ray Foote
Thebeautifullife said at 8:30 p.m. on Jul 6, 2006:
"Belagio-like" hehe That is exactly what my boys were hoping for! So, ever the mom, I DID go and get the Diet Coke and mentos for them (hey, they are good in strawberry--I tried one. shhhh!)....but I didn't know what else to do....so ours was 2 Mentos dropped in and explosion...our thick explosion went about 12 feet high....but the boys looked like they were wanting more...perhaps Belagio overwhelmed them when they saw it. :-P

Well, I am going to get this written down (I may have to come back) and then try this version for the guys....

Thanks for the tips and video location sharing for us mom w/o the science
Thebeautifullife said at 8:32 p.m. on Jul 6, 2006:
Also---does anyone know if anything bad happens if you drink Diet Coke while putting a Mentos in your mouth????
Johnmccary said at 12:55 p.m. on Jul 13, 2006:
Yes. If one loads one's proverbial guzzle bucket full of mentos and pours a veritable waterfall of diet coke into the aforementioned guzzle bucket, one receives what is known in common street verbage as the "car wreck effect." That is, the body mimics actions normally found at impact in a car wreck, replete with whiplash. it's essentially like punching oneself in the back of the throat with mentos. brilliant.
Lilchiefton13 said at 10:40 p.m. on Oct 18, 2006:
that is smart
Cruising said at 4:38 p.m. on Nov 11, 2006:
Pretty cool. If you want to see the best Mentos demo I have seen - someone emailed me this. You gotta watch the whole thing - and sounds helps: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-274981837129821058
Chandralekha said at 12:02 a.m. on Feb 1, 2007:
I never thaught that this product would be harmful to us because i'm a customer of this product but the man who had created the mentos did not tested it first before sending it to the market? He didn't thaught that if a child eat some mentos and drink some Diet Coke or what ever ,what will happen to the child?
Anastasia said at 7:01 p.m. on Jul 2, 2007:
how great. I can't wait to do this with the kids at school!!
Jerii said at 10:16 a.m. on Jul 14, 2007:
The comments are as much fun as the tabblo! It is a slow Saturday morning and I had nothing better to do than to follow all the suggested links. What a hoot!
Jaquil said at 6:12 p.m. on Mar 17, 2008:
thats fn awsom
Wunderz said at 8:40 p.m. on Jul 11, 2008:
id suggest a 9/64" drill bit in the cap its a better gyser
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