COKE AND MENTOS

Observation: when mentos is put into a bottle of coke the coke comes out in the form of
a fountain.

AIM: to find out what causes the coke to come out like this and is it a physical process or
a chemical reaction etc.

Apparatus and requirements: bottles of coke and packets of mentos, chemicals to

analyze the ingredients of both mentos and coke etc.

EXPERIMENT:
First we take mentos and test what are its constituents. Suppose it is made up of four
chemicals say A B C and D.
Next we analyze the components of coke say it is made up of components E F and G.

Now one by one we will check which component of mentos is actually responsible for
the fountain to emerge….
So we will first put the chemicals A B C D individually into the bottle and then
combination of these
Also while doing so we need to take care that certain parameters are to be kept constant
while experimentation and these are:
1- temperature
2- Quantity of coke.
3- Size and shape of the bottle.
4- Humidity level
5- Pressure
6- Number of mentos put in.
Suppose with individual components we have the following results-
A- no effect
B- no effect
C- no effect
D- no effect
And on taking different permutations:
A+B-fountain observed
A+C- no effect
A+D- no effect
B+C- no effect
B+D- no effect
C+D- no effect
Thus we find that it is the combination of A and B that causes the coke to rise up in
the bottle…so now we experiment with the components of coke and we take a
combination of A+B
A+B+E - no effect
A+B+F - no effect
A+B+G – no effect
A+B+E+F – no effect
A+B+F+G – no effect
A+B+E+G – fountain observed
Thus we find that it is the combination of A+B+E+G that makes the whole
experiment work.
So our next step would be to work out a chemical reaction that takes place between A
B E and G that can most probably cause the emission of energy which manifests itself
in the form of the fountain.
Thus we look into the chemistry book and find that the chemical reaction is
A+B+E+G = X (gas) + Y (liquid) + energy
So now that we know the reaction we try to verify whether this is what actually
happens so we perform the experiment and collect the products and analyze them
chemically. Suppose we find that the x and y are identified correctly.
That is it for the chemical analysis…now we find out the physics

Hypothesis: an obvious Hypothesis is as we mentioned before would be to assume

that the energy of the chemical reaction between the components of coke and mentos
causes the fountain to come out.
Now in order to verify this hypothesis we take certain amounts of various
components and predict the amount of energy that is being generated in the reaction.
Suppose we predict the amount of energy to be n joules. Now in order to measure the
energy of the rising fountain we need to know the height up to which the coke rises.
For that we put a scale with a tissue wrapped over it and place it parallel to the rising
fountain and measure the height of the fountain.
But here we observe one thing that on keeping the bottle completely open we don’t
get a fountain rising very high, but on pricking a sharp hole in the bottle we get a
fountain of fairly good height. Thus we observe that only energy conservation won’t
serve the purpose. In fact we have to use Bernoulli’s principle to describe the
phenomenon. So from equation of continuity we observe that smaller the area of the
hole the greater will be the velocity of the coke coming out and thus on applying the
Bernoulli’s equation:
1/2dv2 + p +dgh = constant.
Now suppose we perform the experiment keeping the bottle horizontal on a flat floor
than the height will be the same for the point from where coke is coming out and the
point where it falls on ground on the other end thus it reduces to 1/2dv2 + p = constant
So we find that there is some extra pressure inside the bottle causing the coke to come
out. Thus the energy that is generated in the reaction provides energy to the coke
molecules which in turn cause the molecules to hit the walls of the bottle more
forcefully and more frequently and thus pressure increases. And when we allow a
small opening in the bottle it causes the coke to come out in the form of a fountain.

Conclusion: the chemical reaction between the components of coke and mentos
causes energy to be released which in turn causes coke molecules to energize and
increase the pressure inside the bottle and according to Bernoulli’s principle if we
provide a small opening to the bottle coke comes out as a fountain.