Mentos + Soda = Eruption! How does it work? Soda = sugar (or diet sweetener), flavoring, water, and preservatives Carbon dioxide gas is pumped into the bottles at the bottling factory using tons of pressure. Until you open the bottle, the gas mostly stays suspended in the liquid and cannot expand to form bubbles, which gases naturally do.

How can gas be released from the liquid? Shake the bottle and then open it. Drop something into a glass of soda and bubbles will form on it. –This is called nucleation. –It is like a starting point for bubble formation. Other theories say that as the candy dissolves, it breaks up the surface tension of the water and allows the carbon dioxide to be released.

Some people speculate that soda with artificial sweetener makes taller Mentos fountains. What do you think will happen? If we have lower amounts of sugar, do you think the fountains will be higher? Write your hypothesis in your booklets.

12 Groups 6 Diet Cola 6 Regular Cola 2 Sugarfree Mentos 2 Fruit Mentos 2 Mint Mentos 2 Sugarfree Mentos 2 Fruit Mentos 2 Mint Mentos 2 Diet/Diet 2 Diet/Reg 2 Diet/Reg 2 Reg/Diet 2 Reg/Reg 2 Reg/Reg

Experiment: Relocate to parking lot. Carefully open soda and position on ground so it will not tip over. Position Mentos Dropper tube over the bottle with Mentos. Drop all of the Mentos into the bottle of soda at the same time. Spectators record height of fountain.