Digging in the Cache is a series where we go back in time to look at fun tidbits of Internet and computer history. This week: Diet Coke & Mentos! “Who cares?”, you say? Apparently millions of people. What happens when you put a regular mentos in a bottle of diet coke? It bubbles up and sends diet coke shooting into the air! (Come on, that’s at least a little bit cool…). A group called EepyBird took this concept and expanded it to a series of “experiements” where they use diet coke and mentos to put on a geyser show, or propel a car.
MythBusters even did a show on what was causing the geyser effect and whether the stunts pulled off by EepyBird were possible:
According to Wikipedia:
When the candies come into contact with the liquid, a reaction causes the formation of foam at a rapid rate. A 2006 episode of the television show Mythbusters concluded that thecaffeine, potassium benzoate, aspartame, and CO2 gas contained in the Diet Coke, in combination with the gelatin and gum arabic ingredients of the Mentos, all contribute to formation of the foam. [1] The structure of the Mentos is the most significant cause of the eruption due to nucleation.
Looks like a pretty fun experiment… What do you think?
(photo by Michael Murphy)
