November 13, 2008

Mentos Geyser Used to Launch Beaker 20 Feet

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 … (more...)

November 6, 2008

Mentos Boy in a Box - New Twist on Mentos Geyser Tube

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.

July 23, 2008

How the Mentos Geyser Works - Theory Confirmed!

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

… (more...)

June 24, 2008

ABC News Breaks the Mentos Story… only three years late!

This story came across my Google alerts today from the crack team at ABC News... "Science of Mentos-Diet Coke Explosions Explained." My fingers couldn't click on the link fast enough. New research finally explains this amazing phenomenon? Here's the opening sentence of the story... The startling reaction between Diet Coke and Mentos sweets, made famous in thousands of YouTube videos, finally has a scientific explanation. A study in the US has identified the prime factors that drive the fizzy plumes from Coke bottles: the roughness of the sweet and how fast it plummets to the bottle's base. What... this is the big discovery? The Mentos chewy mints have a rough surface and they're heavy? Well, they're absolutely correct and they confirmed the original Mentos Eruption explanation published back in 2005. Tonya Coffey, a physicist at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina said, "This was a good project for my students to study because there was still some mystery to it." Hats off to Coffey and her students for publishing her findings and bringing peer review to the Mentos Geyser experiment.

However, it … (more...)

June 24, 2008

Mentos Geyser Records Keep Exploding

So, America throws it back to the Europeans... from Louisville, KY to Turiba University in Latvia there is a new Mentos and Diet Coke World record. On June 19th, 1,911 students from Business University Turiba in Latvia launched an amazing geyser eruption and landed themselves in the Guinness Book of World Records, just over a month after students at Male High School in Kentucky launched 1,800 simultaneous geysers to earn their own world record status. The Latvian University students were celebrating the school's 15th anniversary, and what better way to celebrate than with Mentos and Diet Coke. Check out the video of this monumental occasion. Now, who's next...