MENTOS and COKE

with the PROPELLED

SKATEBOARD
EARTH SCIENCE
SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT
 
A Diet Coke and Mentos eruption (alternately diet
coke and mentos geyser or mentos eruption) is a
reaction between the carbonated beverage Diet
Coke and Mentos mints that causes the beverage to
spray out of its container. Our addition to this
known experiment is the use of a skateboard to test
the pressure of the eruption. The gas released by the
candies creates an eruption that pushes most of the
liquid up and out of the bottle and the pressure that
made the skateboard propelled.
It’s been called the “vinegar and baking soda” reaction for a new
generation. Lee Marek and "Marek's Kid Scientists" were the first to
demonstrate the experiment on television in 1999. Steve Spangler's
televised demonstration of the eruption in 2005 went viral on YouTube,
launching a chain of several other Diet Coke and Mentos experiment
viral videos.
History
In the 1980s, Wint-O-Green Life Savers were used to create soda
geysers. The tubes of candies were threaded onto a pipe cleaner and
dropped into the soft drink to create a geyser. At the end of the 1990s
the manufacturer of Wintergreen Lifesavers increased the size of the
mints and they no longer fit in the mouth of soda bottles. Science
teachers found that Mint Mentos candies had the same effect when
dropped into a bottle of any carbonated soft drink.
Lee Marek and "Marek's Kid Scientists" performed the Diet Coke and
Mentos experiment on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1999. In
March 2002,Steve Spangler, a science educator, did the demonstration
on KUSA-TV, an NBC affiliate, in Denver, Colorado. The Mentos
Geyser Experiment became an internet sensation in September 2005In
October 2010, a Guinness World Record of 2,865 simultaneous geysers
was set at an event organized by Perfetti Van Melle at the SM Mall of
Asia Complex, in Manila, Philippines. This record was afterwards
beaten in November 2014 by another event organized by Perfetti Van
Melle and Chupa Chups in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico where 4,334
Mentos and soda fountains were set off simultaneously.
Hypothesis
In the original experiment, the hypothesis was if Mentos
were dropped into the diet coke, there would be an eruption.
In our experiment, we wanted to see the effect of more
Mentos dropped in to the coke. Furthermore, we wanted to
know the outcome if we taped the coke to the skateboard.
Will it propel the skateboard or not? Therefore, our
hypothesis is that if Mentos were dropped into the diet coke,
while the diet coke is taped to the skateboard, our eruption
will become stronger and it would also cause the skateboard
to move.
Materials
• 1.75 L of Coke
• 10-15 pcs. of Mentos (it will be better if
you have extras)
• 1 Skateboard
• Tape (masking tape or packing tape)
• Scissors
• Paper
Procedures

STEP 1: Get your materials.

STEP 2: Prepare the mentos. Wrap 9 pieces inside a piece of paper
and then tape both of the ends securely.
STEP 3: Make a hole in the bottle cap of the coke. Tape the
coke and the skate board together.
STEP 4: Quickly drop the STEP 5: Prepare for launch.
wrapped Mentos inside the Shake the coke so that there
coke. would be more pressure.
STEP 6: See the results!
Results
After dropping the Mentos into the coke, the eruption became higher and
was with more force. The addition of the extra number of Mentos leads to
the rapid nucleation of carbon dioxide gas bubbles precipitating out of
solution. We have seen that the eruption in this experiment was higher than
the eruption conducted last time when we conducted the original one
without changing any variables. The additional pressure caused by the
shaking of the diet coke also caused the eruption to increase and brought
extra force to the whole experiment. It caused the movement of the
skateboard although we would have liked it to move farther, but we have
forgotten to put into consideration its weight.
Discussion & Conclusion
We had a wonderful time in conducting our experiment. A few other
trials were done before we finalized it. On our first try, we used
different flavours of Mentos instead of the original one and it resulted
in the eruption becoming less high. This was because of the differed
content of the flavoured Mentos.
We also tried to measure the highest
eruption between four small bottles all
equally filled with coke and each had
increasing numbers of the Mentos mint.
We did not see the results clearly because
the volume of the coke was not
proportionate with the number of the
Mentos. The increased quantity was too
strong for the small coke. We concluded
in that trial that the volume of the coke
matters as much as the quantity of the
Mentos for the eruption to happen.
In our final experiment, we have seen the
eruption become higher and stronger, causing
the skateboard to move forward. Although if
we were to perform the experiment again, we
will remember to consider the skateboard’s
weight and to make a bigger hole in the bottle
cap. Furthermore, we have observed that a big
factor of the eruption is the shaking of the
skateboard beforehand because it increases the
pressure inside the coke.
Therefore, the increased number of Mentos and the additional
pressure from the shaking of the skateboard with the coke, will
cause the eruption to become higher and will be able to make
the skateboard propel.