Mentos and Soda Exp 2: Which candy is most explosive?

Objective

To determine which candy generates the largest explosion with soda.

Candies:

• Pop Rocks
• Altoid Mints
• Skittles
• Double Bubble Gum Balls, small
• Fruit-flavored Mentos
• Mint-flavored Mentos

Procedures

1. Prepare 20 grams of each candy.
2. Measure the mass of each bottle of soda.
3. Load the candy into the soda.
4. Taste the blast.
5. Measure the mass of the bottle and remaining contents.

Data and Calculations

View the data and calculations in our Google Spreadsheet.

Conclusion

Mentos definitely give the biggest explosions, but Zack and Austin discovered that the candies that gave the smaller reactions also had reactions that lasted longer. It made for a tastier time.

Between the flavors of Mentos, the margin of error was too great to determine if one out-performed the other.  Further testing is needed.  Within the pack of fruit-flavored Mentos, there are several flavors which could each be tested separately.

Mentos and Soda Exp 1: Which Soda is Most Explosive?

Baby Scientists, Zack and Austin, want to know which combination of candy and soda will create the biggest explosion. They first experimented with a wide variety of sodas and mint mentos.

Objective

To determine which variety of soda generates the biggest explosion.

Procedures

1. Measure the mass of the mentos and each bottle of soda.
2. Load the mentos into the soda.
3. Enjoy the blast.
4. Measure the mass of the bottle and remaining contents.

Data and Calculations

 View data and calculations in our Google Spreadsheet.

Conclusion

Their winner: Pepsi Zero Max
Close second: Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry

Notes

Diet Coke is so popular for creating this reaction and we couldn’t test every single brand of soda, so we originally bought every variety of Coke plus others including Diet Pepsi.  But when the Coke Zero outperformed the Diet Coke and the Diet Pepsi tied the Coke Zero, we knew we needed to test all of the Pepsis—and it’s a good thing we did.