by Grania
Mark Twain apparently* once said: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do”. The man was and always will be correct on that point, but this could not be what he had in mind.
MT@SciencePorn: This man dressed in mentos was dropped in diet coke http://t.co/A92rIu6BOn <most excellent idea
— Roger Highfield (@RogerHighfield) August 5, 2015
Then again, another wise man once said “Life is far too important to be taken seriously”. Mr Wilde was and always will be correct as well.
And the science behind it (god bless Wikipedia and all its minions):
The structure of Mentos is a significant cause of the eruption because of its nucleation sites. The surface of the mint Mentos is covered with many small holes that increase the surface area available for reaction (and thus the quantity of reagents exposed to each other at any given time), thereby allowing carbon dioxide bubbles to form with the rapidity and quantity necessary for the “jet”—or “geyser”—or eruption like nature of the effusion. This hypothesis gained further support when rock salt was used as a “jump start” to the reaction. Tonya Coffey, a physicist at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, confirmed that the rough surface of the Mentos candy helps speed the reaction. Coffey also found that the aspartame in diet drinks lowers the surface tension and causes a bigger reaction, but that caffeine does not accelerate the reaction. The geyser reaction will still work even using sugared drinks, but diet is commonly used both for the sake of a larger geyser as well as to avoid having to clean up a sugary soda mess.
Once the mint candies are added to the beverage, bubbles form around the surface of the mints and rise to the surface of the liquid. In addition, the density of Mentos is greater than the density of the drink, which results in the candy sinking. These two factors combined create the blast.
The potassium benzoate, aspartame, and carbon dioxide gas contained in Diet Coke, in combination with the gelatin and gum arabic ingredients of the Mentos contribute to the formation of the foam.
So there we have it: lots of holes, plus carbon dioxide, sweet non-nourishing aspartame and some gelatine equals KAABLOOIE! I would imagine ingesting the concoction is unwise and potentially embarrassing, which brings us to a third correct statement, this time from a psychotic computer named GLaDOS, “I’m doing science and I’m still alive.”
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*The quotes may or may not be accurate**.
** Except the one by GLaDOS which is absolutely accurate.
