"Soda Fountain"
This experiment will make a stream of soda rocket out
of its bottle and go 15-20 feet in the air!
Materials:
- A roll or box of Mentos® (candy mints)
- 1 2-liter bottle of diet soda. Either diet or
regular soda will work for this experiment, but diet
soda is less sticky when you're cleaning it up!
(Adult Supervision Recommended)
The Experiment:
1. Do this outside as its messy. Wear safety glasses.
Carefully open the bottle of soda. Position the bottle
on the ground so that it will not tip over.
2. Unwrap the whole roll of Mentos. The goal is to
drop all of the Mentos into the bottle of soda at the
same time. One method for doing this is to roll a piece
of paper into a tube just big enough to hold the loose
Mentos. You'll want to be able to position the tube
directly over the mouth of the bottle so that all of the
candies drop into the bottle at the same time.
3. Don't drop them into the bottle just yet! Warn the
spectators to stand back. The fountain of soda can rise
up to 18 feet!
Why it Works?
Gum arabic, the stuff that makes Mentos chewy, breaks
down the surface tension that holds the water molecules
together, which in turn, releases A LOT of gas!
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