Diet Coke + Mentos Experiment - Check!

I have always been fascinated by all things science.* So it comes to reason that I have been wanting to to mix Mentos and Diet Coke since I first saw the video of an epic mixing of the two. Had this come out when I was in school, it definitely would have been my science fair project. But as I am many years out of school (though I often consider going back for some type of science degree...besides the political type) I had to take things into my own hands. Therefore, please accept this as my adult mini-science fair project.

PURPOSE**
In my words:

Check off one of the things on my Thirty Things To Do Before I Turn 30 list.
Experience the awesomeness that comes from the mixture of science and food-based volcanoes.
Have fun.

In science fair-speak:

Determine if the portrayal of the result of mixing Mentos and Diet Coke in the videos is achievable by anyone.

Hypothesis**
Based on other videos I have seen on YouTube, I believe anyone can create a soda volcano using these two items.

Materials and Procedures
Needed:

6 2-liters of Diet Coke (apparently any soda would do, but diet is less sticky)
6 Packages of Mentos
3 People (me, Matt, and our friend John who happened to be spending the weekend with us)
A place where no one would be bothered by Diet Coke and Mentos spraying everywhere and cleanup would be minimal.

Procedure:

Drop Mentos as quickly as possible into the Diet Coke, the more the better.

Materials gathered.





Place acquired. This is actually a beautiful gazebo where one of my best friends got married, but that day...it was our laboratory.

Experiment




















I should note that the one is empty because we tried to dump more Mentos in to see if it would respond again. Not so much. So we dumped it out. It made sense then.

Results and Data
Each of us were successful in causing a reaction similar to what is seen in the videos, with the apex of soda reaching a height of about six feet, with maybe half of each Mentos package making it into each bottle.

Conclusions
It is indeed possible for anyone to elicit a reaction by mixing Mentos and Diet Coke. The science behind it is pretty interesting and seems to be somewhat of a mystery until recently. It comes from the rough surface of the candy and how quickly it drops to the bottom. Read more here.
The experiment is slightly addictive.
We should have had a better method for putting the Mentos into the bottles, like the test tube used in this video. Next time.



*My dad is a science teacher, so any time I had questions about how things worked growing up I always got an answer right away...and believe me, I asked a lot of questions. He has always been great at making science relevant and fun, and is still my Google for all things science and math, as my mom is for English and Bible.

**I think I always word the information for these sections incorrectly; I put what in my mind would logically go with the word, but it somehow never is what is required. But it's my blog and I give myself an A for Awesome on this experiment.