Whatever, but do not try this near the security screening line in an American airport.
Link to “mentos + diet coke/pepsi explosion” video.
Reader comment: Amanda Eisen says,
This reminded me of something my cousin taught me a few years ago.
He told me to take a mint lifesaver or two and tie a string around it/them. Take your 2 liter bottle of Pepsi, open it and drill a hole in the cap. Run the string with the lifesavers on it through the cap and keeping them close to the top and the string taut, screw the cap back on.
This is where you decide whether one or two lifesavers is better, it all depends on if they fit or not. Anyway, then you tack the string (keeping it tight) to the wall through a lit cigarette. (I know, I know, fire hazard. I don’t even smoke) When the cigarette burns down, the string will fall away, the lifesavers drop, and the whole bottle of soda explodes, preferably (in his mind) all over some expensive electrical equipment, but it makes a mess no matter what.
Same idea as the geyser really, but it’s geared towards actual destruction. I don’t think it’s a good idea, and I never disliked someone enough to actually try it, just really letting you know that the whole mint + cola = explosion thing isn’t new.
(Disclaimer: shared for informational purposes only, not as a recommended pastime. This sounds like a good way to hurt yourself, someone else, or “expensive electrical equipment” if you’re not careful. Caveat Pepsi Explodor.)
Reader comment: Evan Donn says,
This link has a a pretty thorough explanation of the mentos & diet coke geyser experiment with additional videos; based on his explanation I don’t think Amanda’s version would work. The mints don’t do anything to increase the pressure from the CO2 – they just cause it to release at the bottom of the bottle, pushing the soda out the top. If the cap were still on the bottle it’s likely nothing would happen.
Reader comment: Laurence Yeung says,
I noticed that there was a link to a website explaining the mentos + diet coke effect, and unfortunately, it misses the mark:
Mentos and mint lifesavers have a compound in them called gum arabic, which chemically makes it easier for bubbles to form, by reducing the surface tension. The little pits on the surface of the candy only help magnify this driving force for massive soda degassing, and they alone are not enough to turn a bottle of diet coke into a geyser.
If anyone watches Numb3ers, they actually showed it in one episode!
Reader comment: Steve Glista sez:
i don’t know if diet soda and mentos is strong enough to actually explode a 2-liter bottle and destroy electronics as described in the earlier comment, but drano and aluminum foil DEFINITELY are.
As an added bonus, the drano that splashes out from the explosion will kill plants and bleach or burn holes in fabric, plants, concrete, etc.
This link is to a description of the effect and the chemical reaction on everything2.com.