Last week, I received an e-mail from a friend about the explosion created by the mixture of Mentos candy and Coca-cola. The e-mail says,
Last week a little boy died in Brazil after eating MENTOS and drinking COCA COLA together.
One year before the same accident happened with another boy in Brazil .
Please check the experiment that has been don e by mixing Coca Cola with MENTOS……..
Be careful with your Coke . . .
This news started to spread when Eepybird.com made an experiment called The Domino Effect.
The guys from EepyBird performed the experiment for the second time, with 251 bottles of Diet Coke and over 1,500 Mentos mints. In Experiment #137, they did a mint-powered version of the Bellagio fountains. This time, it’s one giant Coke & Mentos chain reaction that has to be seen to be believed.
While there are various theories being debated as to the exact scientific explanation of the phenomenon, many scientists claim that it is a physical reaction and not a chemical one. Water molecules strongly attract each other, linking together to form a tight mesh around each bubble of carbon dioxide gas in the soda. To form a new bubble, water molecules must push away from one another. It takes extra energy to break this surface tension. So, in other words, water resists the expansion of bubbles in the soda.
When Mentos is dropped into soda, the gelatin and gum arabic of the candy dissolves and breaks the surface tension. This disturbs 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 function as nucleation sites, perfect places for carbon dioxide bubbles to form. As soon as the Mentos enters the soda, bubbles form all over the surface of the candy. The Mentos quickly sinks to the bottom, releasing carbon dioxide as it comes into contact with carbonated liquid along the way. The sudden increase in pressure pushes all of the liquid up and out of the bottle.
Source: Wikipedia
So would it be possible that the “two little boys” died from this reaction? Snopes.com clarifies this issue. This rumor might not be true, but it’s better to be careful than be sorry after.
[tags]mentos and coca-cola, the domino effect experiment, eepybird.com, eepybird experiment[/tags]
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Nov 17, 2006 at 02:39:07
Yeah, it’s totally unlikeley to kill, but it pays to be careful.
Nov 17, 2006 at 12:11:28
well from what I know it was mentos and diet coke. There two scientist who made an experiment on this which cost the soda to explode, maybe that can happen to a human person. Mythbuster also did a show about this which tackles on what makes it explode.
I’ve seen a clip where two person made a show (with coordination and choreography) about mentos and diet coke.
Nov 17, 2006 at 12:13:11
sorry yan napala yung two scientist, hehe. Last june ata or was earlier when I saw them do their show on david letterman show and yesterday on ellen degeneres show.