DATA SHEET EXPLANATION The first column is comparing the reactions against themselves, and the second column is being compared to the original Mentos Diet Coke experiment. CONCLUSION Our experiment to prove that the Mentos and Diet Coke reaction is based on an acid/base reaction had some conclusive results. Based on our experiment, the reaction between Mentos and Diet Coke is not an acid/base reaction. When the Mentos were put into our other acids, the reactions were minimal compared to our control reaction. From this, we learned that there must be another reason behind the Mentos and Diet Coke reaction. We also learned how difficult it is to design and perform an experiment that will show useful results. Based on what we have learned from this experiment, we could conduct other experiments that could further our knowledge in what causes the Mentos and Diet Coke reaction. There are several possible errors in our experiment. One is that we did not test the acidity of the liquids, nor did we test the base of the Mentos. Because of this, we don’t know if we actually tested an acid/base reaction. Another error is that we may not have put enough Mentos in the liquids to achieve a sizable reaction. To correct these errors, we would need to test the acidity of the Mentos and of all of our liquids. We would also need to put more Mentos in the same amount of liquid, or the same amount of Mentos in less liquid. Our experiment to test the Mentos and Diet Coke reaction was successful, in the respect that it proved us wrong. Acid vs. Mentos ACID Vs. MENTOS PROCEDURE To test our hypothesis, we are going to test different liquid acids to see if Mentos reacts the same as with Diet Coke. The acids we are going to use are Diet Coke, lemon juice, vinegar, and water. 1.Measure out one cup of each liquid. 2.Drop 2 Mentos into the Diet Coke. 3.Observe and record height of carbonation reaction. 4.Drop 2 Mentos into the lemon juice. 5.Record height of carbonation reaction. 6.Drop 2 Mentos into the vinegar. 7.Record height of carbonation reaction. 8.Drop 2 Mentos into the water. 9.Record height of carbonation reaction. 10.Use the results to conclude whether an acid/base reaction is the cause of the reaction between Diet Coke and Mentos. MATERIALS 2 cans of Diet Coke 2 cups of Limon juice 2 cups of Vinegar 2 cups of Water MentosSAFETY The reaction from each acid may vary, so a safe distance would be about a foot away Protect eyes with goggles ABSTRACT The reaction of the mentos in the liquid will vary depending on the acidity of the liquid. We proved this statement to be false. There were no largely notable reactions. We tested mentos and varying degrees of acidic liquids. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND The purpose of our lab is to test the truthfulness of our hypothesis: The reaction of the mentos in the liquid will vary depending on the acidity of the liquid. We will test the reaction in three liquids with varying acidity and one neutral liquid. Acids, from the Latin term acere meaning sour, become less acidic when mixed with bases. A base is the opposite of an acid, which means that an acid can give a hydrogen ion and a base can accept it. According to Danish scientist Johannes Brønsted, "... acids and bases are substances that are capable of splitting off or taking up hydrogen ions, respectively." The bases that we will be testing against the acidic liquids are mint mentos. Since mentos contain no acid the occurance of a reaction when the mentos are mixed with the liquid will prove that the acidity of the liquid is reacting against the base of the mentos. If an acid based reaction occurs, it will mean that the hydrogen ion is being transferred from the acid to the base, resulting in the fizzy reaction we expect to see. If there is no reaction when the mentos are mixed with our neutral liquid (water), which has no measurably significant level of acid, the reaction can be proved to be acid based. Box 4 ACIS Vs. MENTOS