Using just 2 ingredients make a awesome geyser, a great experiment which all children will enjoy!
Materials Needed:
- a roll of mint Mentos (6 Mentos per geyser is enough)
- a piece of paper
- a bottle of Coke Zero or Diet Coke (2-litre bottles at room temperature)
What to do:
- Go outside where you can make a big mess.
- Open the bottle of Coke and place it on the ground.
- Roll the paper into a tube so that the Mentos will just fit inside. The goal is to drop all of the Mentos into the bottle of diet coke at the same time (which is trickier than it looks). One method for doing this is to roll a piece of paper into a tube just big enough to hold the loose Mentos. You'll want to be able to position the tube directly over the mouth of the bottle so that all of the mentos drop into the bottle at the same time.
- Ask all the children to stand back.
- Let the Mentos Drop into the bottle
- Move back and enjoy the show!
The Science Factor:
It’s mostly due to a process called nucleation, where the carbon dioxide in the soda is attracted to the Mentos. That creates so much pressure that the soda goes flying.
Hints and Tips:
- Its a very messy activity and if you are dropping the mentos into the diet coke prepared to get soaked with coke if you don't move it. Make sure you have a spare top which you can change into if necessary.
- See what happens when you only add 1 mentos or 2 mentos or 2 mentos each time, rather than the 6 required for this experiment.
Note: This experiment should only be demonstrated by an adult, children can just be observers!
