Make a Geyser with Mentos and Diet Soda

Mentos + Diet Soda = Geysers

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000109

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5341058

http://eepybird.com/dcm1.html

My son says this one is old news, but I just read about in, of all places, the Wall Street Journal. Drop a roll of Mentos candy QUICKLY into a 2-liter bottle of diet soda, and stand back as a 10-foot Geysers of soda erupts. Check out the science site in the first link for an explanation of why this happens. The NPR site has a fun audio story to listen to about how the news staff decided to reproduce the experiment. The last site has soda-geysers-as-art: a 200-bottle fountain show.

If you've got a lot of soda on hand to waste, this is great fodder for a science project - do other candies work? other sodas? Does temperature matter (outdoor temp or soda temp)? Would little ice cubes work? Heck, using the soda for activities that feed your child's brain might be its most nutritious possible use.