Guiding Question: How does the flavor of mentos affect the reaction it has with Coke Zero? And does it matter if the mentos is crushed or whole?
My Hypothesis: I think that the mint mentos will be much more reactive than the fruit ones. But I am not sure if any reaction will occur because we are using Coke Zero.
Materials:
- 1 Coke Zero Bottle
- Fruit Mantos
- Mint Mantos
- Granulated Cylinder
- Goggles
Process:
1. Pour 50 ml of Coke Zero into the gradulated cylinder.
2. Drop 1 fruit mentos in and observe the reaction.
3. In a different cylinder filed with 50 ml of Coke Zero, drop 1 mint mentos.
4. Do this for every flavor of mentos.
5. Observe the reaction in each case.
6. Create data table of reactions.
7. Draw conclusions and further inquiry.
Data Table:
Materials | Predictions | Observations Before Reaction | Observations During Reaction | Observations After Reaction |
| Mint Mentos + Coke Zero | A lot of fizzing up probably biggest reaction | 1 Mentos and 50 ml coke zero | Fizzed for a long time. However didn’t bubble up very high in the cylinder. | mentos sunk to the bottom and stayed there. While coke went back to its original state. |
| Crushed Mint Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that there will be a bigger reaction than the whole mint mentos because it is powder and it will dilute/ dissolve in the coke. | 1 crushed mentos and 50 ml coke zero | basically same reaction but happened faster and mentos didn’t sink to bottom stayed floating on top. | For the crushed mentos the coke remained looking slightly foamed at the top while the crushed pieces reacted and then sunk to the bottom of the measuring cylinder. |
| Grape Mentos + Coke Zero | I think they are going to have a similar reaction to the other fruit flavors quite a lot of fizzing but not as much as the mint mentos are going to have. | 1 Mentos and 50 ml coke zero | Fizzes up to 60 ml on the cylinder and then goes back to 53. happens very quickly. | mentos sunk to the bottom and stayed there. While coke went back to its original state. |
| Crushed Grape Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that there will be a bigger reaction than the whole grape mentos because it is powder and it will dilute/ dissolve in the coke. | 1 crushed mentos and 50 ml coke zero | hardly any reaction | For the crushed mentos the coke remained looking slightly foamed at the top while the crushed pieces reacted and then sunk to the bottom of the measuring cylinder. |
| Strawberry Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that this reaction will be very strong because the strawberry mentos is very sweet. | 1 Mentos and 50 ml coke zero | nothing much of a reaction. Fizzes a small amount | mentos sunk to the bottom and stayed there. While coke went back to its original state. |
| Crushed Strawberry Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that there will be a bigger reaction than the whole strawberry mentos because it is powder and it will dilute/ dissolve in the coke. | 1 crushed mentos and 50 ml coke zero | fizzes a lot more than the other one. quite a largre reaction. we found this very surpirsing. | For the crushed mentos the coke remained looking slightly foamed at the top while the crushed pieces reacted and then sunk to the bottom of the measuring cylinder. |
| Orange Mentos + Coke Zero | I’m not sure what will happen with the orange mentos, probably a medium reaction. | 1 Mentos and 50 ml coke zero | barely anything happens | mentos sunk to the bottom and stayed there. While coke went back to its original state. |
| Crushed Orange Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that there will be a bigger reaction than the whole orange mentos because it is powder and it will dilute/ dissolve in the coke. | 1 crushed mentos and 50 ml coke zero | nothing happened they just stayed at the top and coke bubbled slightly. | For the crushed mentos the coke remained looking slightly foamed at the top while the crushed pieces reacted and then sunk to the bottom of the measuring cylinder. |
| Watermelon Mentos + Coke Zero | The watermelon mentos is very sweet so I think it will make a big reaction. | 1 Mentos and 50 ml coke zero | Fizzed for a long time. However didn’t bubble up very high in the cylinder. | mentos sunk to the bottom and stayed there. While coke went back to its original state. |
| Crushed Watermelon Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that there will be a bigger reaction than the whole watermelon mentos because it is powder and it will dilute/ dissolve in the coke. | 1 crushed mentos and 50 ml coke zero | fizzed for a long time same thing as non crushed happened. | For the crushed mentos the coke remained looking slightly foamed at the top while the crushed pieces reacted and then sunk to the bottom of the measuring cylinder. |
| Pineapple Mentos + Coke Zero | I don’t realy know what will happen to the pineapple mentos as it is not as sweet as the others. It’s more bitter. Maybe this will affect the reaction. | 1 Mentos and 50 ml coke zero | very quickly starts fizzing (quicker than the others) but not a lot of bubbling up. | mentos sunk to the bottom and stayed there. While coke went back to its original state. |
Crushed Pineapple Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that there will be a bigger reaction than the whole pineapple mentos because it is powder and it will dilute/ dissolve in the coke. | 1 crushed mentos and 50 ml coke zero | A lot of fizzing happened. but the coke had been sitting out for a while so it had losts most of its bubbles. | For the crushed mentos the coke remained looking slightly foamed at the top while the crushed pieces reacted and then sunk to the bottom of the measuring cylinder. |
| Raspberry Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that the reaction will be less reactive than watermelon but still very big because raspberry mentos are very sweet. | 1 Mentos and 50 ml coke zero | Most reactive out of all (including mint) reacts quickly and over flows stays overflowing for a while! | mentos sunk to the bottom and stayed there. While coke went back to its original state. |
| Crushed Raspberry Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that there will be a bigger reaction than the whole raspberry mentos because it is powder and it will dilute/ dissolve in the coke. | 1 crushed mentos and 50 ml coke zero | Again along with the green apples it had one of the biggest reactions | For the crushed mentos the coke remained looking slightly foamed at the top while the crushed pieces reacted and then sunk to the bottom of the measuring cylinder. |
| Green Apple Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that there will be a big reaction because there is a lot of sugar in the green apple mentos. | 1 Mentos and 50 ml coke zero. | Nothing really happens about the same reaction as the orange. | mentos sunk to the bottom and stayed there. While coke went back to its original state. |
| Crushed Green Apple Mentos + Coke Zero | I think that there will be a bigger reaction than the whole apple mentos because it is powder and it will dilute/dissolve in the coke. | 1 crushed mentos and 50 ml coke zero. | It happend about the same as the crushed rasberry mentos. | For the crushed mentos the coke remained looking slightly foamed at the top while the crushed pieces reacted and then sunk to the bottom of the measuring cylinder. |
My Data Analysis: If we look back at the predictions that we made at the beginning, most of them are correct or more or less right. I predicted that the crushed mentos would make a bigger reaction than the whole mentos. I was right. When we dropped the whole mentos in 50 ml of Coke Zero, it sunk to the bottom, the coke fizzed and sometimes bubbled up and then the reaction was over. The coke did not fizz much anymore and the mentos had lost it’s color. On the other hand, with the crushed mentos, when we dropped the powder in 50 ml of Coke Zero, it bubbled up much more and the mentos did not sink to the bottom of the measuring cylinder until they had finished reaction. In both casses, when the reaction was completely over, the Coke went back to it’s original state of 50 ml.
My Conclusion: How does the flavor of mentos affect the reaction it has with Coke Zero? And does it matter if the mentos is crushed or whole? I had predicted that the biggest reaction would occur between Coke Zero and a crushed mint mentos; I was partly right. The biggest reactions occurred with the crused mentos. Probably because it took less time for the coke to geach the inside of the mentos where there is the most sugar. But I was wrong thinking that the mint mentos would be the most reactive because they turned out to be the less reactive ones. The fruit favored mentos were sweeter so it may be the sugar inside them that make them more or less reactive than the others.
My Further Inquiry: If I was to do this experiment again, I would use a timer and time each reaction so it would have been easier to compare the results that we obtained and see which flavor had the biggest/strongest reaction because sometimes it was hard to judge. I would also use diet coke instead of coke zero because it reacts better with mentos. Another thing is that I would have poured the coke, close it and then right away drop the mentos in. I think that the fact that the reactions we obtained weren't very big is partly because the coke has been sitting for too long in the graduated cylinder as we poured it into each one and then when we were done pouring and measuring, we dropped in a mentos, waited for the reaction to finish and then moved on to the next cylinder already filled with coke zero.
