Ok, on Sunday I did a couple more experiments; warmer than room temperature coke does not seem to work any better than room temperature coke, if anything it doesn't work
as well, and cutting the Mentos in half appears to work a
little better, but I don't think it was enough of a difference to help with launching.
I also tested a few launch systems, without much success. I think the main problem was that we tried alternatives to wrapping the Mentos in plastic wrap, none of which gave us enough of a time delay.
My cork-and-nail system didn't work, it leaked spectacularly. It might work with a
really good cork, but it's more likely that corks are too porous to hold back that kind of pressure.
The closest we came to a launch was when I noticed that the Mentos had failed to come into significant contact with the coke, grabbed the bottle and shook it, and then the bottle shot out of my hands and between my legs and landed about 4 feet behind me!
Of course, my little brother and his friend thought that was hilarious, because as you can imagine a got a little wet.
Next time we'll stick to plastic wrap for the release system.
~Dylan
EDIT: I see Mentos has been added to the spell check.
