How Much Fun Can A Simple Science Experiment Be?

Science is fun.  No doubt about that.  There are experiments all over and I plan on exploring these interesting activities throughout the summer.

Today's materials list: diet coke & mentos

Such simple materials.  Yet sooooo fun!

Ruby began with putting as many mentos in the soda as she could.

Only 1 mento made it in!

When my brothers saw the reaction of the soda when mixed with mentos, they decided to join in the fun.

 Why do Mentos mixed with soda produce this incredible eruption? 

     When you drop the Mentos into the soda, the gelatin and gum arabic from the dissolving candy break the surface tension. This disrupts the water mesh, so that it takes less work to expand and form new bubbles. Each Mentos candy has thousands of tiny pits all over the surface. These tiny pits are called nucleation sites - perfect places for carbon dioxide bubbles to form. As soon as the Mentos hit the soda, bubbles form all over the surface of the candy.  When all this gas is released, it literally pushes all of the liquid up and out of the bottle in an incredible soda blast.

Watch the experts.

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Theme: Summer (or not?)