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Mentos and Soda Explosion

In this stage presentation, learners experience a dramatic and messy demonstration on the effects of surface area.

DESCRIPTION

Presenter puts Mentos candy into soda to create a soda fountain. This is a dramatic demonstration of the effects of surface area. This demonstration isn’t heavily focused on nanotechnology,but can be a spectacular finale that you add on to other nano demos like Intro to Nano or Surface Area. (It’s probably best as a substitution for Alka-Seltzer, rather than being performed with it.) It’s also just a crowd pleasing demo that briefly mentions nano.

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  • Facilitator standing next to a erupting bottle of soda
  • Facilitator standing next to a erupting bottle of soda

DESCRIPTION

Presenter puts Mentos candy into soda to create a soda fountain. This is a dramatic demonstration of the effects of surface area. This demonstration isn’t heavily focused on nanotechnology,but can be a spectacular finale that you add on to other nano demos like Intro to Nano or Surface Area. (It’s probably best as a substitution for Alka-Seltzer, rather than being performed with it.) It’s also just a crowd pleasing demo that briefly mentions nano.

JUMP TO BROWSE RELATED RESOURCES

OBJECTIVES

BIG IDEA

Surface area on mentos makes soda explode.

LEARNING GOALS

  • As a result of participating in this program, visitors will be able to: Describe how surface area makes soda explode.

NANO CONTENT MAP

Nanometer-sized things are very small, and often behave differently than larger things do.

Credits

YEAR CREATED
2011
OWNING INSTITUTION

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

FUNDING

Developed for the NISE Network with funding from the National Science Foundation under Award Numbers 0532536 and 0940143. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this product are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.

PERMISSIONS

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US).
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DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

NISE Network products are developed through an iterative collaborative process that includes scientific review, peer review, and visitor evaluation in accordance with an inclusive audiences approach. Products are designed to be easily edited and adapted for different audiences under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. To learn more, visit our Development Process page.