Exploding Coke!

What if we mix Coke (Diet) with lollies? Specifically, Mentos and Jelly Beans.

That was our "what if?" question for today.
We had three bottles of Diet Coke and three types of lollies: Mint Mentos, Coloured Mentos and Allen's Jelly Beans. We asked the children to predict what type of reaction we would get when each of the lollies were dropped into the bottle of Diet Coke.

First we tried the mint Mentos. The children in Kindergarten were familiar with this one because they had seen it at our Science excursion.

As soon as the mentos fell into the Diet Coke the Coke gushed out of the bottle in something that looked like volcanic eruption!

Next, we tried the coloured mentos to see if we would get a similar reaction.

Finally we asked "What if we use jelly beans? Will the reaction be the same?"

Most of the children thought the reaction would not be the same because jelly beans are smaller than mentos.

The reaction was the same. The only difference was only a few of the jelly beans landed inside the Coke bottle due to their shape. Many of them were stuck in the tube.

The greatest reaction came from the mint Mentos. The jelly beans would have had a similar reaction if more fell into the Coke bottle. 

The tiny gaps in the coating of the lollies allowed the gas in the Coke to form bubbles causing a chemical reaction.