News Anchor Gets Soaked! Mentos Experiment Sets a New Record
Kim Christiansen thought that Monday would be just another fun, hands-on science segment with Steve Spangler. Little did she know that the bottles of soda would explode and she would be wearing the experiment. This is not the first time I’ve done the Mentos Soda Explosion on the air, but I can safely say that I’ve never gotten these great results either.
Learn how to do the Mentos Soda Explosion – read the experiment
Okay, so what happens behind the scenes? Did I practice this with Kim? No… never… absolutely not! Now, this is not to say that I don’t practice the demo ahead of time – there’s lots of prep that goes into each segment. But I don’t let my cohort in crime know in advance EXACTLY what is going to happen… because I want the viewer to see that person experience the demo for the first time. It’s tough to fake genuine excitement or the element of surprise, and as you can see from the video segment, Kim was surprised. As they say in the business, that makes “good TV”. How high did the soda erupt? Judging from the slow motion that we replayed in master control, it looks like the soda shot up to about 16 feet. That’s the power of carbon dioxide in a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke. And yes, Diet Coke remains to be the best performer (and I’ve tried almost everything). One final note… the Diet Coke was room temperature, I used 13 Mentos candies that dropped from a big plastic test tube.
Again, this is just one of the 50 experiments in the Fizz Factor book.
great experiment!! i will do it for my preschoolers on a nice day outside!
Dawn
I love this one, we did it at my son’s birthday last weekend and the kids went nuts, and just for fun we sent them home with the stuff to do it again. It’s all about spreading the fun.
I work at a science center; I’ve done/seen a LOT of science demonstrations. In terms of spectacle to how easy it is to do, this may be the greatest demo ever. (ie I can think of more spectacular ones, but most folks don’t want to be screwing around with liquid nitrogen.) BTW: In lieu of the Mentos/plastic test tube Steve used, a large paper clip bent into a fish-hook shape and a roll of Wintergreen Lifesavers will work, too.
What we need more of is science,
Jonah Cohen
I, too, used to use Wintergreen Lifesavers… but when Lee Marek taught me about Mentos, everything changed! Mentos draw out the CO2 so much better. Give it a try.
Sensational and wonderful and inspiring and phenomenal and I promise I will do something about it — like try to reproduce it locally….
I’m thrilled! (and drenched)
I can not wait to do this with my first graders. Watching the video was a hoot. Thanks Steve for another great “hook” for science.
I saw this last year with Steve’s group at the NSTA Convention and loved it. I did it for the whole second grade at our end of year picnic; everyone including parents were amazed and wanted to see it again. Some of the dads said it shot up over 16 feet. I think it may work better when the soda if hot. Thanks for the great experiment and WOW.
I did this with my 6th graders last Friday. We used Wint-o-Green Lifesavers, but one child conducted further tests at home and found that Mentos were superior. We also observed that diets erupt best. My students suggested that it was because diets are less dense than regular sodas (which they knew because of the Coke/Diet Coke floating experiment). Thanks for all the great ideas.
I did this experiment last year at the end of a school day. My pre-schoolers loved it and they wanted me to do it for the parents when they picked them up from school. On one day I did the experiment 4 times and everyone thought it was cool. After seeing it again, I will do it for my pre-schoolers in the next couple of weeks when we talk about the fun side of science.
So when does the urban legend begin? Did you hear about the guy who drank a diet coke and then ate a handful of mentos. His head exploded. We are going to have a reading incentive party with a number of the soda experiemnts. Last year we did alot with your sound experiments and the kids loved it. Thank you so much for making science fun for everyone.
What an awesome experiment and great game idea. I am a Youth Minister and our kids loved the game that we made out of this. One person had to lie down on the floor on their back with the 2 liter ballanced on their forehead. Their partner dropped the mentos in and after the explosion you had to chug what was left in the bottle. First one done wins. Thanks for the idea.
I saw you do this experiment at the ECA Conference in Orlando last year. I had forgotten how fun it was but will show my Pre-K class next week.
Peggy Sammons
Bradenton Florida
Wow, it’s great, I will try it later.
the experiment was awesome! i go to ligon middle school and my science teacher did it for us. it was really cool and i wasn’t expecting the results to be like that at all so it really surprised me. well now we’re learning about it and what made it explode and its really interesting. thanks a lot!
I tried this and my head asplode.
After seeing this video, my colleague and I had a spark of inspiration. We immediately drove 20 miles to the nearest Kroger at 7 am to render supplies. At Kroger, we promptly assessed the situation and collected 4 2 liter bottles of Big K Diet Cola, 2 3 Liter bottles of Big K Diet Cola, 3 packs of Mentos, 2 Star Wars Mix M&M’s Minis (test tubes), and 1 Pirate Eyepatch/Earing Combo (not used for the scientific experiment). Needless to say, our experiments went off without a hitch.
Beau says, “It was freakin rad!” He is still rockin the eye patch and earring. I concurred with his assessment.
I was just going through your list of experiments and saw the picture of the Mentos fountain. I accidentally did a similar thing back in 1956. I was 12 and had a fondness for creme soda, and also liked the flavored colas (lemon, cherry, etc) you could get at a soda fountain. I thought I could change the creme soda flavor a bit by dropping in a Fizzie tablet. If you don’t remember them they were flavored Alka-Seltzer like tablets you could drop in water to make a soda. You know what happened! As soon as the reaction began I knew what was going on. When it was all done I had less than a quarter bottle of liquid which tasted terrible.
I genuinely like your segments. Keep up the good work, and Mr. Wizard’s legacy.
This is a great expirement thanks for this idea i cant wait to present it in my school science fair!
I am using this experiment for a volcano progect at school. It doen’t really look like a volcanic erruption but it sure beats using bi-carb and vinegar!!
I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw this clip – it brought back one of my favorite childhood memories of pouring the contents a giant pixie stick into my mom’s bottle of “TaB”, while she sat burried behind the newspaper. The Tab exploded all over the celing and I’ll never forget the look of fear as my mom flew out of her seat and screamed a word I’d never heard before!
Thanks – I’ll have to show this to my kids!
This is a really great experiment, but I tried it with club soda and seltzer water, and got only a 6 inch geyser no matter how many Mentos I used. What gives? Doing it with diet coke got a geyser of 10 ft. What variable in the diet soda is different from the clear carbonated beverages?
If anyone has a theory I’d love to hear about it! Thanks,
Matt k.
What’s better (and ensures that all the mints will go in), is to drill a hole into a 3-liter bottle cap, making it big enough to fit a straw through. Then put the straw through, string some Lifesavers on the straw under the cap. Chew some gum and stick it at the end so that the mints can’t come off right away. Go outside, and holding the straw, carefully screw the lid back on. Once ready, pull out the straw as fast as you can, causing the mints to fall all at once into the coke. The intensified pressure from the very small hole in the cap will make it go higher. I’ve done this….5 times now 🙂
A few thoughts to the many posts… yes, Diet Coke is the real winner (followed by Diet Pepsi)… and no one really knows why. But if the pressure is on and I’m doing it on television or for a big audience, I’ll always use Diet Coke. With regard to Wintergreen Lifesavers… this is the way many of us used to do it before Lee Marek suggested Mentos. Thanks to literally hundreds of people trying out different variations, we’ve determined that a whole roll of Mentos, (13 candies) dropped into a bottle of room temperature Diet Coke will produce about an 18 foot eruption. Awesome.
Most awesome! We let the kids in our family each make their own Mentos-Diet-Coke fountain at our Christmas gathering. They all loved it! We set the Coke bottles in the sun to warm them up, and got better results. (We were too afraid to try to warm the sealed Diet Coke bottles in the microwave!)
Another fun trick is to just drop one single Mento into a can of Diet Coke. No big eruption, but plenty of overflowing bubbles that will empty about half the can. We got a similar (but slower) reaction with a bottle of beer, but had to break the Mento in half to get it to fit in the bottle!
I did this experiment last year with my science club at the after school program I work at. All the kids loved it and thought it was great. The best thing was that one of my students who participated in this came to me and asked if I could help him make a coke explode because he wanted to do it for his schools science fair.
I’m doing this experiment for a scince expo project at my school I decided to test different varibles with it like the temperature of the coke one at room temp. and the other one being in the fridge chilled and seeing witch one has a larger reaction to the arabic gases. Thanks for all the info!!
We’re doing this experiment in my chem 2 class right now!
Nice…. I used this as my science fair project.
What soda causes the highest fountain?
Coming from the UK, we don’t get ‘Mentos’ over here. But the experiment looks great. Will be very amusing to do in the common room at college. Can you guys think of any British equivalents?
Cheers, Sam
Sam, its Arabic Gum.
Wintergreen Lifesavers seem to do a pretty good job. Take a look at this write-up…
https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000184
On Saturday morning, in 12 degree temperatures, we went to Walmart and bought two 2-lliters of diet soda mentos. We went in the back yard and successfully erupted the soda. My kids went wild! We’ve done it two more times since then—it’s a big hit. They’ve also made predictions about temperature outside, and brands of soda, so far. — Carla
Great experiment! Thank for sharing all your great ideas. We ran to Walgreens to get supplies, but they only had “sugar free” Mentos. That geyser was a fizzle.
When we were able to get some “regular” Mentos, the soda geyser was a big backyard success with my kids and their friends.
Does anyone have any ideas why the “sugar free” Mentos don’t seem to work as well?
hey I was wondering, I am going to do the experiment but does it matter if you use mint mentos or the fruit mentos? please coment back on this message.
THANKS!
Melissa
I’m told that the fruit Mentos don’t work as well, but I haven’t tried it. The regular Mentos and fresh Diet Coke never fail me.
your experiment interested me so much that i am actually doing it for my science project!!!
Wanna make it better? We drilled a very small hole in the cap. Ran a very thin nail through 2 Mentos and from underneath through the cap. We poured a little diet Pepsi out of 2-Liter so the Mentos under the cap wouldn’t touch the liquid. Put the cap on, dropped the nail and I’d say at least 30 feet in the air. I don’t know if more Mentos works better, but we’ve been having great success with just 2. Try it with a small hole in cap though, really get some heigth.
I will use this for my Science Fair Project!
I am using this as my science report/project and I am soooooo excited!!! It’s going to be sooooo much fun!!! : )
this is so cool. I did something pretty stupid with that i put my mouth over itwhen it explode so im warning you dont put your mouth over it when it is going to explode.
i love how it looks like a fountail it is so cool!!!!!!!!
with this outcome you could simintaniously blow up every toilet in Canada!
WOW!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve heard about this experiment before. I was listening to NPR one day and I heard the same thing. It is absolutely amazing. I’m going to see what other sweet things might work better.
Excellent! Nice summer experiment…
I believe you’ve kick-started a national phenomenon! I saw the experiment demonstrated on my local (Utah) news last week, and I’ve overheard several other people’s coversations on the topic as well… I’m off to try it for myself now!
I am a high-school student. I can’t wait to make a mess of my mates. My only concern is about the consquences but I then again I never knew what would happen… :p
I’ve done this experiment a number of times, and I had a sparkle of an idea. If there is so much force coming out of the top of the bottle, what happened if it was facing the ground?
To try this, I used a bent large paper clip and emptied a tiny bit of soda out of the diet coke. I screwed the cap on just enough so that it could fly off due to the pressure. If you are fast enough, throw the bottle against the ground, cap down. The cap will fly off, and the mentos will propel like a rocket!
Has anyone tried it with different temperatures of soda?
Since heat tends to expand the gas bubbles, there is a lot less carbonation in lukewarm sodas and the geysers didn’t achieve the same heighth. However, at 34 degrees Fahrenheit, they do not go quite as high as the 42 degree soda. Citing simple chemistry, the gas is contained much better when the cold doesn’t make the gas molecules “shrivel”, but also not when the temperature is too high to make the molecules expand and heat up.
I recommend using a 40-45 degree F. temperature when showing it to your kids, it’ll not only make the show more impressive but they’ll also wonder why yours works so much better than theirs does 🙂
Prof. of Bio-Chemical Studies Intermediate,
Greycool University, IN
Tyler Coleman
Hi fantastic, a real must try experiemnt, is there a new fuel here – lol.
I remember achiveving something similar with a small bottle of pop (soda) in a cafe in Durham (UK) with my mum, she was having a cup of tea and I was having a pop, well they used to put wrapped sugar cubes in a bowl on the table, a couple of these expertley pinched and quickly rammed into the bottle soon got us both thrown out onto the street – sorry mam.
Great stuff keep it up!
Sam – my friends and I tried it with Millions today at college. We didn’t quite master the technique of allowing the sweets to quickly fall into the Coke the first time, yet we produced a good fountain with our second attempt.
Ha! We did this at school… but our teacher didn’t tell the kid who put the mentos in what would happen… the kid got soaked in diet coke! Ha! I found that awesome. I heard that before, in the first classes, the teacher was doing it inside and the pop kept hitting the ceiling and ruined some electrical stuff. It was awesome!
Joe M shared this info with me in a email…
For a very analytical and scientific understanding of this experiment, read the article by two analytical chemists at the Dept. of Chemistry at Illinois State Univ. called “The Ultrasonic Soda Fountain: A Dramatic Demonstration of Gas Solubility in Aqueous Solutions.”? This can be found in the Journal of Chemical Education or on-line as a PDF file at: http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/HS/Journal/Issues/2006/Apr/clicSubscriber/V83N04/p577.pdf
These scientists, applying a true inquiry based scientific process, identify Diet Coke as the best supersaturated carbonated liquid to use. Discussion of bubble formation, temperature effects, presence of other dissolved materials, and Henry’s Law (describes the relationship between the concentration
of a gas dissolved in a solvent and the partial
pressure of the gas). With this phenomena of releasing carbon dioxide quickly from a gas/liquid mixture, more teachers should take advantage of this opportunity to explore this science with their students. Everyone should share in this excitement and be involved with inquiry based, hands-on and minds-on science activities that helps us understand and learn from the world around us.
Joe Maglaty is a great science resource for teachers. Look him up at http://www.mise.org
I tried Mentos “Sours” tonight and they did not work as well as the Fruit Mentos. From what I have been reading…the original Mint Mentos work best..right?
I host a yearly block party in my neighborhood. This year I plan on having each kid on the block participate in the Mentos experiement and then later entering it in the science fair as a group in their elementary school. Would you or channel 9 be willing to sponsor us?
Laura – I’d love to see pictures from your block party. I’m sure it will be great. Since I’m not affiliated with the Mentos folks or Coca-Cola, I don’t know how we would sponsor it. My best advice is to run to Costco and stock up on bulk supplies of Mentos and Coke.
Wow, this is a great experiment, I can’t believe Mentos and Diet Coke haven’t shut this craziness down yet! It seems like everybody is talking about this, I guy from my book club sent me this link http://www.Cokementos.com, pretty good at showing the top experiments, enjoy everybody!
hey i did this for my friends 6th b-day
Neat experiment, but I’ve a question: what becomes of teh Mentos? Do they dissolve? Partially? Completely? Inquiring minds need to know :^)
Dr. Destructo — If you take a look at the Mentos right after the reaction, they look almost unharmed – even still good to eat. If you leave them in the soda, they’ll eventully dissolve. We found it interesting to discover that you can reuse used Mentos. Right after the eruption, we emptied a the bottle, recovered the Mentos and dropped them into a new bottle of soda… with equally good results. Hmmm… very interesting.
–Steve
We tried this and I got hit in the chin and now me and Leigh- Anne are totally soaked. Ahhh my new dress!! Super fun and curious about what would happen if we chugged a bottle of diet coke and ate a handful of mentos?!?!!?
Cheers,
Brittany, Victoria (BFFL) & Leigh- Anne
i have tried this recently, and i wanted to try and make the rocket stream fly higher and longer, the best result that i got was from emptying out about 1/4th of the diet coke out, drilling small holes through the center of the mentos, and putting a string or fishing line throgh about 5 mentos. then you drill a small hole in the cap and put the mentos on the string under the cap and seal it. o, and you put gum on the end of the string so they wont fall off, now, you can either let the string go, (doesn’t work as well) or the better way and pull the string out fast, … i find this very fun for water fights and such because you can pick it up safely and shoot it at people, do it fast tho because this only lasts about 5 seconds… have fun!
I really Like this project. i willbe doing this for my class when they will be talking about animals and chips. i will be the only one doing a science experiment. i hope it will blow their socks off. Wish me luck!!!!!!!:)
Wasn’t this originally on eepybird?
Look at the date – it’s September 5, 2005 – a year before the craze even hit. Reading the other posts on the blog, it looks like Spangler and the teachers in his science institutes were doing this back in 1999 or 2000. I read an article in the Toronto Sun about Steve Spangler and how teachers have been doing this for a long time. He wasn’t the first person to do it, but he’s the one who inspired all of those videos out there.
hey do you have any sientific methods for this experimrnt
There are over 100 videos of this on youtube!
He’s the guy that started it. Look at the date of the post – back in 2005. I watched his first video on 9news.com back in 2000 or 2001.
The mentos and coke geyser. Nice. However, what if your out of gas, the nearest mall is five miles away, and all you have is cans of diet coke and lots of antiacid? well if that is all you have, then have no fear just pop 2 tablets in and you have a really powerful geyser! Trust me. I know. I was under lockdown for not having the balloon on in time. The kitchen was a HUGE mess. Try it some day. But dont forget like i did. Do it OUTSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
great experiment
cool experiment
Its a great scince fair porject
I am doing this for a science experiment and they say diet coke works better… (and so does diet 7up)
Hi im kody,i was wondering if any 1 could give me some advice on an diet coke and mentos science project you can reach me at my email.
Kody –
There are lots of Mentos geyser experiments that you can try on our website… check out this page, it will give you lots of information on how to make a science fair project out of the experiment. Good luck with your project and have fun!
Steve
Lol. Thats funny, me and my friend are doing this for a science experiment in January…now i get to watch a lot of cool vids and get advice!!!!! and i know to use diet. 🙂
I need more movies like this. 😀
hey i saw the experement and it was cool nice idea of the mentos tube 😛
This never gets old….EVER
diet pepsi and mentos gum works ok.
This really works and very fun to try
I thought I could change the creme soda flavor a bit by dropping in a Fizzie tablet. If you don’t remember them they were flavored Alka-Seltzer like tablets you could drop in water to make a soda.