Battle Zone Mentos and Diet Coke Explosion
45Oxford Homework Club and Tutoring conducted their first Battle Zone summer camp. This Mentos and Diet Coke explosion was a big hit! This is on the courthouse square in Oxford, Mississippi.
What the cadets now know is that Mentos and DIet Coke work together in a very special way. The CO2 in any carbonated drink is always looking for a way out, and any rough areas on the surface of anything give it an opportunity to congregate, or seed. Mentos have a very rough surface area, which is a lot of seeding space. On top of that, there's no sugar in Diet Coke, and that gives it a weaker surface tension than sugared drinks. On top of that, the gum arabic in the Mentos and the aspartame in the Diet Coke act as surfactants, also reducing surface tension. The final thing that makes it work so well is that the density of a Mentos is greater than that of Diet Coke, so they sink rapidly. The bubbles that rise up from the bottom seed other bubbles exponentially as they rise, and there's an explosion!