… and the soda continues to fly. On August 22, 2010, Mexico City became the Guinness World Record holder for the largest number of simultaneously erupting Mentos and cola geysers on Saturday with 2,433 participants. The Mentos Geyser Tube Toy keeps the soda flying!
A few months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Dave Reed, the VP of Technology for eSpeakers, at the Winter NSA Conference in Orlando. Dave talked to me about the work he is doing in Mexico with his family and I gladly passed on a few science gadgets to take back to his home in Ajijic, Mexico. As it turns out, the Mentos Geyser Tube™ is a hit in any country! Dave sent me an email recently and let me know that his 10 year old son, Riley was the hit of his school’s science fair. Dave was even kind enough to send some pictures of the Geyser Tube in action with his son.
I love hearing stories about how making science fun can overcome all boundaries, even those between countries! Thanks Dave for the great follow-up and congratulations to Riley… keep up the great work and happy experimenting!
It was quite a week for our Spangler Science team when we invaded Texas with 24 staff members and Spangler Ambassadors. Half the team headed to Fort Worth for CAST (the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching) and half the team went to Dallas for NAEYC ( the National Association for the Education of Young Children). While our NAEYC team was launching Mentos geysers on the Boy in a Box, the CAST team also found a unique way to use the Geyser Tube… launching our favorite scientist, Beaker , 30-feet in the air in the Geyser Chamber. It was quite a sight at the Spangler Science booth when Beaker when shooting through the air on a stream of Diet Coke.
When the team wasn’t launching stuffed Muppets, they were busy talking with excited science teachers and even presenting workshops at the conference. Spangler Speaker Julie Gintzler presented her Chicka, Chicka – KABOOM workshop. The eager participants were more than a little excited when Julie pulled out the amazing Square Bubble and the “magical” Spot Dot Thumb… now there’s way
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If you’ve followed us over the years, you know that NAEYC (the National Association for the Education of Young Children) is the first teacher conference where we introduced the famous Mentos Geyser Experiment. In 2006, we launched 700 geysers in the open air on the trade show floor. The Geyser Chamber made its debut in 2007 to show how the geyser shoots 30 feet in the air. This year it’s Boy in a Box… a clear plastic container measuring 4′ x 4′ x 7′ where geysers fly at the rate of 30 per hour (watch the streaming video). It’s easy to find the Steve Spangler Science booth in the NAEYC exhibit hall – just listen for the screams followed by applause.
It’s probably the most asked question we get… “How exactly does that experiment with the Mentos and Diet Coke really work?” From the outset (nearly eight years ago), we hypothesized that the exploding soda was a physical reaction, and the key factor in the release of carbon dioxide was the microscopic pits on the surface
of the chewy mint. However, there was no real scientific study that anyone could point to as the definitive answer… until now. In the June issue of the American Journal of Physics, Tonya S. Coffey, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Appalachian State University, in Boone, N.C., and her team of fearless physics students reported on the ingredients, temperature dependence, duration, and other parameters of the suddenly famous Mentos-Diet Coke reaction.
There has been considerable debate over gum arabic (found in the coating of the mint) and the role it plays in the physical reaction. Coffey’s group was able to confirm that the surfactant gum arabic is a key component of the reaction: It reduces surface tension, thereby
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