The Majestic Beauty of the Mentos Geyser
By now most of us have heard what can happen when you mix mentos with soda, but how about why it happens?
Well, the mints cause the rapid nucleation of the soda's carbon dioxide gasses, meaning that all those gasses that make your soda bubble are being turned into liquid. Since a two liter bottle is intended to hold two liters of liquid, the increased volume has to go somewhere and that somewhere is up and out of its cramped confines. For best results, use Mentos mints rather than fruit flavored gum (as the former has smoother coating nd therefore less surface are for nucleation) and sugar-free or diet soda (since sugar helps to bind carbon dioxide in the solution.) The record geyser was 6 meters tall, helped by the use of a nozzle to focus the jet. Think you can beat it?
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