It’s tough to really demonstrate the Mentos Geyser Tube in an exhibit hall filled with teahcers… until we created the Mentos Geyser Chamber. It’s a plastic box that measures 4 feet square and 7 feet tall. It’s the perfect enclosure to launch off a few hundred Mentos Diet Coke geysers. The only other thing you need is someone to stand inside the box for a few hours. Most of the time, Drew Vriesman is an undergraduate at the University of Colorado, Boulder, studying marketing. But when he puts on his intern hat at Steve Spangler Science, he’s never quite sure what to expect. Drew Vriesman and Taylor Marsh took turns launching geysers at the NAEYC 2008 conference in Dallas. Combined they launched 700 erupting Diet Coke geysers using over 4,000 MENTOS® Chewy Mints. The interns spent about 20 hours in the Geyser Box over three days and entertained (or amused) about 15,000 teachers who stopped by the Steve Spangler Science booth.
Robert Woodhead is always looking for a new challenge with his Casio EX-F1 camera. I found Robert’s first Mentos Geyser reaction on Gizmodo using just a roll of Mentos and a bottle Diet Coke. Watching the reaction at 1200 fps is truly amazing. Robert found a willing subject (the kid running from the exploding bottle) and sent us this video. Huge thanks!
If you haven’t seen the Mentos Slow Motion Video from the people at Perfetti Van Melle, watch it! At 2,000 frames per second, you can actually see the carbon dioxide bubbles forming on the nucleation sites.
We’re excited about the official launch of our new Spangler Geyser Tube. Think of it as the perfect Mentos loading device to trigger a 30 foot geyser of soda. Just load the Mentos candies into the tube, lock the nozzle in place and pull the pin. Okay, it’s bes
t to pull the pin and then run away. The Mentos drop into the bottle triggering the reaction and the powerful soda geyser comes shooting out the top with enough pressure to reach an incredible height of 30 feet. Onlookers scream, “Do it again!”… and you do.
The Geyser Tube retails for $4.95 and is currently only available at www.SteveSpanglerScience.com However, as a result of our licensing agreement with the maker of Mentos (Perfetti Van Melle), the Spangler Geyser Tube will be released into mass market distribution (all of the major toy stores, print catalogs and online stores) in June 2007.
After two straight days of demonstrating the Spangler Geyser Tube at the New York Toy Fair, my voice is gone. All in all, we launched over 500 two-liter bottles of diet soda in the giant plastic tubes to demonstrate how a science experiment turned into an Internet sensation… which lead to the creation of a new toy.
Prior to my voice disappearing, I spoke with Greg Sandoval, Staff Writer at CNET News.com, about toying with the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment.
The opening day at Toy Fair was amazingly busy for those companies who had cool science product, according to a staff writer from CNET News.com. Caroline McCarthy writes, “Amid the madness of the 2007 American International Toy Fair here, a somewhat unexpected trend was visible: apparently, science rules.” Caroline stopped by the booth yesterday to ask a few questions about our new Geyser Tube toy and, more importantly about general trends in science education. She points out some very interesting observations in her article - teachers should read this.
Despite the perpetual debate over whether the United States is losing ground in raising the world’s best scientists, today’s pop-culture climate is remarkably conducive to making science trendy. The ubiquity of science kits and gadgets at the Toy Fair made me wonder–is science actually cool now?
Even YouTube has its influence. Be Amazing, a toy company that specializes in chemistry sets and licensed products from Steve Spangler Science, was drawing massive crowds with
After two straight days of demonstrating the Spangler Geyser Tube at the 
The opening day at Toy Fair was amazingly busy for those companies who had cool science product, according to a staff writer from