Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment

Behold the Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment and learn, finally, the answer to that never asked-enough question: "What happens when you combine 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos mints?

It is a beautiful thing, this scientific curiousity. Especially when it leads to a genuinely "spectacular mint-powered version of the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas."

In case you've never made the science-fun connection before, or never thought about how a thing as uncomplicated as the desire to have fun could take us to the moon, you now have reason to thank the scientific minds of EepyBird.com. Explanations? Again, from Eepybird:

"..chemists are saying that the primary cause is physical, not chemical. Their explanation: nucleation sites. If you have a liquid that is supersaturated with gas (like soda, which is pumped full of carbon dioxide), a nucleation site is a place where the gas is able to form bubbles. Nucleation sites can be scratches on a surface or specks of dust – anywhere that you have a high surface area in a very small volume. That's where bubbles can form.

"Mentos seem to be loaded with nucleation sites. In other words, there are so many microscopic nooks and crannies on the surface of a Mento that an incredible number of bubbles will form when you drop it in a bottle of soda. Since the Mentos are also heavy enough to sink, they react with the soda all the way to the bottom. The escaping bubbles quickly turn into a raging foam, and the pressure builds dramatically. Before you know it, you've got a big geyser happening!"

Ever wonder what would happen if you drank coke and mentos? Don't miss this cautionary tale.

Now that you're left with all those Mentos and all that Diet Coke, how about a toast to my first and only daughter? Born this day. 39 years ago.