- Most people theorize that there's some exotic ingredient in Mentos® that causes the soda to violently react. In truth, the candy mints are made up of rather standard ingredients -- sugar, gelatin, gum and flavoring. It's the texture of the Mentos® that allow the soda to react.
- Soda is carbonated, which means there are thousands upon thousands of little carbon dioxide bubbles that give the soda its bite. These bubbles are normally held at bay by the water in the soda. Shake the soda up, and the bubble on bubble reaction gives you -- more bubbles. A lot more bubbles!
- Adding a Mentos® to the soda allows thousands of new bubbles to form on the fissures of the candy as it dissolves, creating even more fissures and even more bubbles. This rapid expansion of carbon dioxide--called nucleation--results in the creation of an enormous quantity of foam. Since the open soda bottle only has one place for the new foam to go, it travels as quickly as possible out of that hole.
- While Mentos® have become the go-to candy for this experiment, there are literally thousands of other quick-dissolving items that will produce a similar reaction. When you tire of using up your Mentos®, try salt, sugar or Altoids® and you'll likely see the same result. When you tire of wasting soda, stop the experiment and begin the clean up process.
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