Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Sam can explain it better but the story I heard was that she was cut off coming home one night on a very busy highway-type parkway road, and was forced off the road and into the woods.

They don't call her Crash Goddess for nothin' folks. :ahh:

Yes Art, my car thanks you for the temporary beauty makeover.. LOL

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Sadly, yes. I went to Six Flags New England on opening day with Kim from 177 and Matt and Tom from 195, and after hanging out in South Windsor that night I drove home to Shelton. Someone cut me off on the Merritt; I served, spun out, and went off the road in the 50 feet between an overpass and the place where the guardrail started up again. My car tried to make friends with 3 trees at 65mph. It didn't work out so well for the car.

Basically, I'm lucky I didn't have a passenger. And I was wearing my seatbelt! Safety FIRST, all. :)

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

I'm going to also say that you were lucky too! :)

Looking at the Cavalier's firewall and "A" pillar being pushed back you were lucky. Time to buy a PowerBall ticket! ;)

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Seatbelts don't always save you. My uncle was hit by a speeding ambulance while he had his seat belt on, but it broke and he was thrown from the car. He actually ended up dying (but that was long before I can remember). I guess there are certain cases where it's good, others where it doesn't make a difference, and other times when it doesn't do you any good.

But, since it's the law, and more often than not, a good thing, it's always best to wear your seatbelt.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Im not so sure about luck. Id say many engineers put a good part of their careers and life-energy into designing that car - that was not luck, that was intentional design-for-surviability

Luck? - that would be if you had seen the car cutting you off a second sooner and been able to avoid the accident entirely :^)

I think the statistics are: one in four people will be in a serious car accident during their life time. Hopefully you have had yours now.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Wearing a seat belt always does you good, it just always isn't enough. Since the time that your uncle died, :( there have been great improvements in vehicle safety both in the seatbelt construction and latching and in the cars themselves (we can thank the hundreds of crash dummies for that).

Seat belts rarely break in accidents and when they do, many times they have done their job and protected the person from the initial impact of the accident.

My brother-in-law was also in an accident were his seatbelt broke and he was thrown from the car (Blazer). But the belt broke after the Blazer rolled four times, If he had not been wearing the belt, he probably wouldn't have been alive to be thrown from the vehicle. By the time he was thrown the speed was reduced to a point where could survive the ejection.

Buckle Up Everyone! Especially if you are driving by the neighborhoods of Art, Elgin and Dylan when they are experimenting with Diet Coke and Mentos!

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Maybe someone should start putting seat belts on those DC/M rockets people are working on. :p

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Nah!! Personally I'm not at that "October Sky" status yet.. but someday.. oh yes, someday I will launch myself (or someone a bit lighter) in the air with Coke and Mentos. ;)

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

This sounds like the famous last words of Buster from Mythbusters... :eek:

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

You would definitely need a whole lot of coke and mentos...

Interesting Idea would be a steal reinforced bathtub (filled with water) and some Francium :yikes:


***200th Post*** :D

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

I don't know if this has been suggested. It trades power for control. You may not get the bottle to fly 50 ft, but maybe 15 feet straight up reliably is a nice trade-off.

Summary:
(a) suspend 5 mentos inside the bottle above the soda using a paper clip threaded through holes in the mentos. See here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAHGz...0coke%20mentos
(b) Use a cork to hold the pressure until it builds.
(c) Construct a rudimentary launch platform from another 2 liter bottle so it launches straight up.

Details:
(1) Buy a cork that will fit firmly into the mouth of a 2 liter diet coke bottle. They have these at Michaels for <$2 for 4 of them.

(2) Create a launcher. Take an empty 2 liter bottle. Remove the label and soda. Use a box cutter or exacto knife to cut the bottle in half with a clean straight cut. 1/2 inch above the halfway point is actually perfect (yes above). Throw out the top of the bottle. The bottom will be your launcher.
(You will put the corked full bottle inside it and turn the whole assembly upside down to launch.)

(3) Prepare mentos. Take four mentos (5 is slightly better but dips into the soda and causes permature mixing thus ruining the launch.) Poke a hole through the centers of the mentos. I use a large thick paper clip or very thin nail for this because a normal clip just bends. String the four mentos through a small paper clip and then press the end of the clip into the bottom (inside) of the cork. The mentos need to be flush against the cork or they will mix with the soda too early.

(4) Cork the rocket. Open a new Diet Coke 2 liter bottle (Actual Diet Coke Brand is reported as the best, adn Dieat Coke beats non-diet becuase it's less sticky to clean up). Push the cork in as tightly as possible being careful not to crush the bottle and make sure NOT to let the mentos hit the soda!! Take the launcher and place it over the top of the rocket. You can get a little airtight seal here but don't worry if not - the main importance of the launcher is to hold the bottle upright.

(5) Turn the whole thing over (do not shake), and place upside down on the pavement and immediately back away. Don't hesitate because it can go off pretty fast.

The rocket should shoot upward maybe 15 feet or so. The trick is getting the cork as tight as possible. A rubber stopper might be better than a cork but I didn't try that. Then again if too tight you're back to the problem with the cap (not coming off until you destroy it). A 20 oz bottle might work even better, less weight, but I didn't try that. Also try a few more mentos and dump a little soda out first - more air space, more released gas should cause a faster and more explosive release???

It seems fairly safe, especially compared to slamming the capped bottle down, but use caution, consider eye protection, and of course avoid young kids around. It can still go at odd angles. Have fun.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Both types have been tested, and Diet Coke seems to project out more liquid than regular coke.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

That's cause it's more carbonated :D

http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?titl...&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

that is only speculation: I think its because regular Coke is so syrupy - it has a much higher viscosity - its more like carbonated corn syrup.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Fatal flaw in that theory; my testing showed that cold coke barely reacts at all, compared to room-temp coke.

Someone needs to test this.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

if surface area is the trigger then confectionery sugar, charcoal from an aquarium filter, or talcum powder might work better.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

I imagine Diet works better because its much lighter than regular, so the same amount of CO2 "thrust" causes further projections.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Should probably stick with mentos because:

Confectionery sugar will most likely turn into sticky blobs

Charcoal is nasty

Talcum powder (at least the real kind) is a carcinogen! :ahh:

But if wax works you could probably just drop a candle in the coke and then re-use it, which would cut costs and not be sticky.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

I cant see a candle having a lot of surface area. A candle is as smooth as, well, as smooth as wax

the charcoal used in filters has a very fine and grainy surface - thats why it makes a great filter, there is so much exposed surface area in a small handfull of the stuff.

Nobody drinks this stuff off the driveway after the launch, do they?!

you dont scoop it back in the bottle and put it back in the fridge (I hope) :ahh:

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Well... my little brother tried it (Mentos fueled of course) and according to him it has a killer aftertaste. :yikes:

What I meant was that charcoal would make a would make worse mess (black) than Mentos.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Correction to my earlier post (controlled Diet Coke Mentos Rocket Launch)..

It seems that using 4 mentos instead of 5 is too few and the rocket will
not have enough thrust to push out the cork sometimes. So add a fifth,
but to get all five flush with the cork and above the soda you have to
squash them by about a third. This does not harm the reaction but you then have time to cork and overturn the bottle!

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

On Wednesday, August 9th Jaime of Mythbusters throws his beret into the DC&M ring!
That's right, the Mythbusters will be doing Coke and Mentos rocket experiments! :ahh:

Hopefully this will not only give DC&M national recognition, but also answer the question once and for all "what exactly makes this work?"

I am also hopeful that the Mythbusters will be able to develop a simple yet reliable launch system.

As long as there are no legal issues, someone needs to record this episode, put it on Youtube, and then post a link.


Excuse me for geeking out, but this will be a great moment in Diet Coke and Mentos history! :cool:

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Any chance that Grant stumbled upon this thread?

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

It is possible. According to his profile, his latest activity was on Tuesday.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

That can't really be grant from Mythbusters... can it?! :ahh:

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Yes, it is.

He's been on here for quite some time but keeps a low profile, for obvious reasons.
Not only is he involved with competing with his Battle bot but he's been a mentor on FIRST team 841 for several years now. :)

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

It's that science and technology inspiration stuff - never know where it'll take you - :)

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Anyone see this? $750 in prizes a month for a simple experiment! I think the best one i saw (a little dangerous) was diet coke + mentos + dry ice :ahh: ! It was pretty cool. It blew up cause of pressure but you could see the bottle get to like twice its original size before it blew! I bet with a hole in the cap it would make a HUGE fountain!

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

I plan on doing this this weekend. I bought a special drill bit (1/16") for the cap and the mentos. Heh... maybe I'll have some pics to post.

Successful verticle DC&M Launch
 

I finally got around to loading Gabe and I's launch. We decided about a month ago to use our waterrocket launchpad to do a Mentos and Diet Coke rocket launch. No throwing the bottle on the ground, no chance of it coming back and harming people or property. It Did launch over some powerlines, though. This was after work out at the Astronaut Hall of Fame. The following videos are taken with the Google camera from the KOP, step by step.

Gladwrapping Mentos

The Launchpad

Loading Mentos and putting it on the pad

Pumping air into rocket to seperate the mentos from the gladwrap and add pressure.

LAUNCH

Recovery


And just for the fun of it, we decided to drop some diet coke and mentos from the roof of the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Mentos Deathdrop

Enjoy!

Re: Successful verticle DC&M Launch
 

looks pretty darn cool barry. we just talked about it at work, didn't really do it lol.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Advice for the next group that tries this: use a tripod.

Where can one buy that "pad"?

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Is it just me or does the guy shaking the bottle on the roof remind you of one of the Sand People from Star Wars...
Anyway, it looks like the Deathdrop did something similar to the rockets my brother and I made. One sort of flew sideways a bit and the other blew the bottom of the bottle out. (Does anyone know if the 50¢ Walmart coke doesn't work as well as real Coke, because that's what we used)

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

From much experience, we've deducted that the 58¢ Diet Sam's Choice Cola from Wal-Mart works just as well as regular Diet Coke. ;)

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

I'm sorry , but, WHAT?!

I've never seen this done before and how do you get the mentos into the soda? do you just dump them in?

someone explain this whole process

what do you do?!

umm...where do I go?

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

If you are talking about Mentos and Diet Coke, it was a fun summer project/experiment for lots of folks.
This thread talks about it and how to get the Mentos in the bottle...
It's pretty cool.
If you google, this is one of the options:
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000109

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Go back to page 1 and start reading. Before page 5, there should be something useful there.

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Forget Diet Coke and Mentos, these guys try other candy and soda.

:D
Wetzel

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

so I know this thread died off a bit but check this out. about 10 days ago this was posted online, and to be honest I am supprised nobody here saw it yet. This is truely amazing.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...2Feepybird.com

Re: One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!
 

Wow. That is amazing. You can only wonder what they will come up with next. Now if only someone can get them in FIRST so that we can see what their creative minds can do with robotics.