Ever since our first video that went viral in 2005, people have been dropping Mentos into Diet Coke and other sodas for fun and hopefully for a little science too. No one has been more creative than the guys at Eepy Bird, who recently built a car that runs on Coke and Mentos geysers. This is their second attempt at the car and after some modifications and test drives, they ran it at a local race track.
Their geyser soda car is built using 54 bottles of Coke Zero and 324 Mentos. It runs on a piston mechanism with 6′ tubes attached to the soda bottles. The tubes each have a 6′ rod inside. The pressure from the reaction pushes the rods out of the tubes to push the car off the wall. It’s all coasting from there.
The video of their geyser rocket car has become popular on YouTube. Unfortunately, this isn’t something anyone can build and run themselves. If you want to run your own version of the Mentos Geyser Rocket, check out our Mentos Geyser Car. It’s fun, it’s science and it fits in your arms. Read some reviews on the Geyser car for more information.
We have reached Day #9 in our 12 Days of Wonder. Today’s spotlight science toy is Geyser Car.
Steve Spangler Science is celebrating the 12 Days of Wonder and highlighting our top 12 science toys and kits that are perfect to put under the tree. As blog editor, social media coordinator and mom of two budding scientists, I will share my review of each product. Steve Spangler Science also found 12 respected, popular mom bloggers to each test and review one of our 12 science gifts. I will include a link to their blogs and their honest reviews of each gift idea at the bottom of this post. Today, Sarah from Moose Tracks and Tater Stacks shares her review. The kit is also the Deal of the Day. So check our blog every day for the next few weeks to learn all about our 12 Days of Wonder.
Day 9 of the 12 Days of Wonder features the Geyser Car.
Today only, this kit is our DEAL of the Day for $12.50. Regular price is $24.99.
My Review:
I brought the Geyser Car to our Thanksgiving dinner. It served as our after dinner entertainment.
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
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…
Tune into Food Network’s Unwrapped to get a peek inside the Spangler Science labs as Steve shares the science behind the Mentos Geyser all of that exploding soda. Back in December, I mentioned that a crew from Unwrapped on the Food Network wanted to get the real scoop on the popular Mentos and soda reaction. The crew spent an entire day grabbing the reaction from every angle and trying to understand how all of those tiny bubbles produce such a huge fountain of soda. The episode is scheduled to air on September 24, 2007. Consult your local listing for time and channel.
