The Mentos and diet cola trick exploded onto the viral video scene in the mid-2000s. It consisted of a Mentos candy dropped into a bottle of diet cola, resulting in a stream of bubbly soda shooting upwards.
Materials
All that is required in the experiment is a 2 liter bottle of diet cola and a package of regular Mentos candies. While some other sodas will still cause an explosion, the levels of potassium benzoate, aspartame and carbon dioxide are highest in diet cola. Do not crush the candies, as the gum arabic required for the reaction is only found on the coating. Fruit flavored Mentos have a different formula, and will not cause the desired reaction.
Chemical Reaction
When a candy is dropped into the bottle, is sets off a chain reaction of carbon dioxide bubbles forming around the candy. Because diet cola has a low surface tension, the polar bonds between water molecules can be easily broken, resulting in a rapid rate of bubble formation.
Results
Once the reaction begins, enough pressure will build to shoot a stream of bubbly cola over 20 feet high. Gathering friends and multiple bottle setups are common in pop culture, with the world record for largest simultaneous reaction being broken in Mexico in August 2010. Over 2,400 participants sent streams of diet cola into the air during this gathering, according to Wired.com
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