Mentos and Diet Coke Rocket

Launch a 2 liter over your house, No promises!
Also please use ccaution when performing this experiment there is always a possibility of injury or damage to property, please launch in wide open area with pleanty of space in all directions and never attempt to launch in the direction of another person as flying 2 liters can hurt!

Step 1 Purchasing!

Go to you local gas station or grocery store and purchase as many materials desired, for one launch you need only:
1- 2 Liter Bottle of Diet or Diet Caffeine Free Coke(Pepsi does not work as well)
2- Mentos(Mint not fruit flavored)

Comments

[georion]

anybody get hurt---seems dangerous the way You do it

[LoveOutLoud]

Is this a chemical reaction or a physical ?

[princemyheart]

Both!

[sciencegeek12]

actually its a physical reaction only because nothing new is being created

[PKTraceur]

if this is "just" a physical reaction, how come the bottle is propelled up?!?!

[princemyheart]

The bottle is propelled up.... mate.... that IS a physical reaction! Can't believe that there is NO chemical reaction happening somewhere in the bottle though. Cheers Royce www.funshow.com.au

[arf200]

It is all physical the mentos it creating an area for the carbonation buble to form fast enough that it builds presure enough to lunch the bottle

[mattccc]

sweet!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mattrox]

weight is not a force. Gravity is the force that acts on weight

[34will]

No, weight is a force. Gravity is a field that causes weight.

[Buck Futter]

Neither is a force, according to Einstein "Gravity is a warpage of space and time". Weight is just the increased or decreased 'apparent mass' of an object. (Weight = Mass * Gravity). On Earth, gravity = 1, so mass and weight are equal. =D

[eshad]

somebody!!! can u help me?? i just want 2 know what is the used of this reaction in our life?? plizz help me...

[matoro_toa]

great fun and a big mess

[chibiwind]

The bottle will never reach terminal velocity because it isn't falling like 10kms of a cliff

[bylerfamily]

This didn't work!!!!!!I used a water bottle.

[Owenmon]

do it in a baseball field and as soon as you throw it run into the dugout

[Yerboogieman]

try to drink it while its spraying like weezer did.

[Cameronk]

good but sometimes putting the whole thing in makes it fizz a lot more =P what i do is:
Pull the paper off of wrapper.

Open up one side of the foil.

Quickly put the mentos in and screw on cap.

Shake.

Then throw as needed.

[Cameronk]

oh yeah and forgot ... don't taste the mentos or the diet coke after the launching... tastes horrible lol... diet coke is flat because it fizzed up.. and the mentos taste like diet coke...

[taegin]

not to mention, the mentos turn ROCK HARD...i blasted them and some landed on me so i ate one...owww

[bleedingsoul]

if the bottle could it would sing Cause i'm tnt i'm dynamite i'm tnt and i'll win without a fight watch me explode

[popbottle]

dude u can get more thrust if u take 6 mentos together with tape then tape that to the cap believe me u get ALOT more thrust like double even triple the height u wrote good luck -popbottle

[zach12]

will sugarfree mentos work?

[Bartboy]

no

[hacker22]

Ok first of all, terminal velocity is the maximum speed an object can FALL, and is the average between the force of wind and the pull of gravity. How can and object with propellent going upwards, reach terminal velocity? And also a bottle can go much higher, you must have had horrible luck.

[memzie]

it work nd it flew

[Jack Daniels]

done this one befor but it is cheeper to just use same bottle water and dry ice

[oakers2]

Were can you get the dry ice?

[Mjeden2006]

Any local grocery store will have it but you need to be at least 18 to buy it!

[armageddon]

grocery store? now ive heard everything. i thought you had to buy it at a special place?

[Cameronk]

safeway sells it these days..

[Jack Daniels]

walmart sells it as well

[TreizeEnder]

I buy dry ice for a little over a dollar a pound at SafeWay (local grocery store here). I use it for a tornado machine; great for showing the air convections as carbon dioxide is a white vapor. Just ask the clerk to get it next time you go. They keep it locked for good reason.

[Mjeden2006]

But the effect varies with dry ice and a 2 liter only costs a buck and the mentos even less

[killa monk4]

there are tons of movies of this on u-tube take a look

[joshc0311]

i like this but except when i do it i shove the whole package or 2 in and screw the cap on real quick and then shake. it works really well

[sciencefreak99]

mint not flavoured because the flavoured ones are 'laminated' if you know what i mean, theyre glossy, and the surface area is greatly reduced so it has no reaction

[armageddon]

actually i think your method would not work. the chemicals play a small part in the reaction. the most important part is the outside of the mentos. there are tiny little craters on the outside of the mentos where the bubbles can form and rise up when they are heavy enough. its is important to put them in whole cause i dont think it would be possible at all to launch it over a building chewed up.

[sciencefreak99]

k, thats not the only thing, caffine, i think Potassium Benzoate, Phosphoric Acid, and also Aspartame. they all contribute a bit to the reaction, and also the ingredients in the mentos. using non caffinated isnt practicle because it will lower your 'power'. i wonder if making a checker board desing on a mento work work well, seeing that that would create more surface area.

[Mjeden2006]

Yes it does work as I mentioned before I've done it, with comparable results! Only one, not both of the mentos is chewed up, this provides enough of the chemicals for the reaction and pleanty of places for the CO2 to form bubbles. Good information though, you must watch MythBusters.