One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by robotcanuck1676

And finally, #3: Will somebody PLEASE tell me HOW THE HECK YOU PUT A PICTURE IN A POST WITHOUT CREATING A NEW THREAD?!?!?!?!?!?! It annoys me to no end that I can't do that without making it an attachment.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...06&postcount=3

& Keep in mind:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...14&postcount=5


Simple.

[Ted Boucher]

Well.... things went bad for me.... lol. So it all went fine and good till I shook it up and the hot glue seal that I made around the cap and bottle broke. It failed to take off but succeeded in making a nice mess on my pants.

Originally Posted by robotcanuck1676

The picture in my mind is two rocket launching pads (see below, attached) next to each other with two pieces of plywood. One has a nail in it, the other has a hole with a rope. Bungee cords are attached to the top of the bottle, which is set on the pads with straws to guide it.

Well after mine failed I decided to break out my estes rocket set and see how well one of those launch pads would hold up. The upright pole is very very flexible and is only made for a very light weight rocket. I think if you did use these stands, the coke bottle would go anywhere it wanted to anyways.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Ted Boucher

Well.... things went bad for me.... lol. So it all went fine and good till I shook it up and the hot glue seal that I made around the cap and bottle broke. It failed to take off but succeeded in making a nice mess on my pants.



Well after mine failed I decided to break out my estes rocket set and see how well one of those launch pads would hold up. The upright pole is very very flexible and is only made for a very light weight rocket. I think if you did use these stands, the coke bottle would go anywhere it wanted to anyways.

LOL Oops. So, Ted.. need any supplies from Home Depot tonight? I prolly won't be able to give them to you till Saturday anyways, but just wanted to know.. Text me and let me know.

Plans are underway!!! Oh yes.. plans.. plans are good.

[Ted Boucher]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

LOL Oops. So, Ted.. need any supplies from Home Depot tonight? I prolly won't be able to give them to you till Saturday anyways, but just wanted to know.. Text me and let me know.

Plans are underway!!! Oh yes.. plans.. plans are good.

lol probably not elgin... right now the only idea i have is to make it go boom..

So since my last post, I created quite an ingenious liftoff method. I used a tornado tube soda bottle connector, a full bottle of diet coke, and the 2 halfs of a cut up soda bottle. This used equal pressure to plug the hole of the diet coke until the reaction took place.

The 2 parts to this rocket:
Part A: This included a full diet coke bottle, the tornado tube connector, and the top screw half of a soda bottle.
Part B: Was the base part of a cut in half soda bottle.

I first wrapped a full tube of mentos in saran warp and inserted them into the open bottle of diet coke. Then I screwed on the tornado tube to complete the assembly of Part A. I then Part B over the cut in half section of bottle on Part A. This created a nice suction and made it so there were 2 equal sets of pressure on either side of the tornado tube. Then I turned it all upside down so the diet coke bottle was on top in the air, and the 2 halfs sections were on the bottom. To my enjoyment, the seal stayed and the diet coke was suspended in the top of the bottle only though the pressure. Then I shook Part A until the reaction took place and the newly created high pressure of Part A rushed into the lower pressure of Part B. There was enough pressure to have Part A shoot out of the base of Part B and fly up a crazy 2 feet in the air (grrr) and crazy down and spray me with diet coke.

I was quite happy with this experiment, and I am sure someone can improve upon it. lol The basic problem of it was it lost off if its power in the liftoff stage. It also tryed to lift off right when the pressure started to go off, with the original, it was shook up good and had built up a great deal of pressure.

I will post pics later on so it will be easier to understand, good luck everyone!

[KenWittlief]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone instrumented a Coke/Mentos bottle yet?

It would be interesting to see how much pressure builds up in the bottle

you can easily get 100 psi with a quality bicycle tire pump. If coke/mentos does not exceed this it would be less expensive to perfect the bottle rocket using water and air pressure

and save the Coke/mentos for live-fire demos with an audience.

[Andy Baker]

Here's some results from the Baker backyard, as performed by Rachel (9) and Andy (old kid):

Purchased at Kroger:

• 2 packs of mint Mentos (each a 24-pack for $0.99)
• 2 - 2L bottles of Diet Coke ($1.59 each!!)
• 2 - 2L bottles of Diet Big K Cola ($0.59 each)

Tools & items used:

• utility scraper
• scotch tape
• fishing line
• small twine-like string
• 11/64" drill bit
• cordless power drill
• 9-week-old puppy

Test 1:
Drilled a hole in the cap of a Diet BigK cola bottle.
Taped 2 mentos to end of small twine-like string.
Put 2L bottle on flat platform.
With cap removed, threaded string through cap, with mentos under cap.
Put cap back on bottle, ever so slowly.
Attempted to drop string into bottle.
String gets hung up on hole.
Results: Some fizz... 3-4" in projection... string impeded projection... Mentos dissolved slowly.
Overall results: puppy licks platform, wife gets camera, kids get wet, just enough promise to try bottle #2

Test 2:
Used the same cap in experiment #1.
Used the #2 Diet BigK Cola bottle.
Listened to Rachel, saying "we gotta cut the mentos in half to get the Coke to dissolve it faster".
Used the utility scraper to cut the Mentos in half.
Taped 4 mentos halves to string.
Inserted mentos onto cap as in test 1.
Dropped string and mentos into bottle (had to push the string a bit)
Results: lots of fizz... once string and mentos goes into bottle, got a 6-8 foot projection... puppy licks bottle, kids drink soda and don't like it... wife laughs.

Test 3:
Used the same cap as test 1 and 2
Used the #1 Diet Coke bottle.
Replaced the string with fishing line.
Taped 5 halves of mentos on fishing line.
Inserted fishing line into hole, suspending mentos above Cola, fastened cap to bottle.
Yank out fishing line, releasing mentos halves into Cola.
Results: 10-12 foot projection, just like the guys in the white suits on the video... puppy licks grass and bottle, kids get excited, Rachel and I do "high five"... wife gets the projection recorded on digital video.

Lessons learned:
Fishing line works great
Diet Big K Cola works as well as Diet Coke
Cut the Mentos in half before inserting into Cola
5 mentos halves will use up about 50% of the cola
Puppies like cola (no worries, she didn't get too many licks)

We're planning a July 4th fountain.

Andy B.

[JaneYoung]

^ what is puppy's name?

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Jane

^ what is puppy's name?

She is mainly black, with some white highlights (paws, nose, tip of tail). She is a mix breed... named Oreo.

AB

[Ashley Weed]

In the very first "rocket video" what was the reason of the ceran wrap? Can you explain more on it's use, and if you would do it differently next time.

My next trip out of the city back the the Homeland... I'm definitely gonna rig up something.

[Ted Boucher]

Originally Posted by Ashley Weed

In the very first "rocket video" what was the reason of the ceran wrap? Can you explain more on it's use, and if you would do it differently next time.

My next trip out of the city back the the Homeland... I'm definitely gonna rig up something.

The saran wrap is used to insert the mentos into the bottle to delay the release of them to the coke. This way you can insert them, seal the bottle, and shake the bottle. The shaking of the bottle will make the saran wrap release and the mentos will react with the coke. This a cheap and easy way to make a time release "fuse".

This can be used in many applications, like a baking soda/vinegar bottle explosion and other applications were you have to separate the reactants until they need to be mixed.

[KTorak]

So...the Today show had the creaters of the video that everyone has seen online. How they released the mentor is putting a fishing string through them, then a clip at the end. They release the clip and the mentors fall into the container. However, I'm not sure that this method could be adapted to launch a rocket. However, they said they use Diet Coke becuase it contains no sugar, therefore, no stickiness.

(sorry about grammar errors...I am in a hurry to not be late to work)

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by KTorak

However, they said they use Diet Coke becuase it contains no sugar, therefore, no stickiness.

That has yet to be proven to be the real reason. As is with most scientific experiments, it's more of a technical reason than a vain one. LOL

Anyways, I have still yet to see why diet cokes does work better than regular coke (and yes, it does my friends) but some hypothesize that it has to do with the artificial sweeteners in the diet coke, as opposed to the natural sugar found in regular cola)

This weekend, along with building my rocket, I plan on testing other various soft drinks for reactivity to mentos, and a new found slow release "ammunition source" which I shall keep under wraps till extensive testing can be done on my part.

But, so far.. let's just say I sacrificed a Bawls for the cause, and it works well. Mentos and Bawls works well, and my secret ammo and Bawls too, but I don't know how well since I just did the experiment in a plastic cup, with no nozzle for shooting like a soda bottle has and I can't judge pressure in a rather large open container.. yet..


**I like how Mentos tries to default to Mentors in the spell check. Next question I have is what happens when you drop Mentor(s) in Diet Coke?**
Maybe I'll test that as well this weekend..
Any volunteers? (shotty not it! *puts finger on nose*)

**shotty defaults to an interesting word as well. I think I will inform Brandon of that one and have it removed. LOL

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

and a new found slow release "ammunition source"

Confectioners sugar? Wait, that's fast release. Maybe altoids? Probably not sugary enough. Could it be BAWLS mints? Or maybe jawbreakers? Gargh, the suspense!

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

That has yet to be proven to be the real reason. As is with most scientific experiments, it's more of a technical reason than a vain one. LOL

Anyways, I have still yet to see why diet cokes does work better than regular coke (and yes, it does my friends) but some hypothesize that it has to do with the artificial sweeteners in the diet coke, as opposed to the natural sugar found in regular cola)

That would be the logical difference. Regular Coke has the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar in a 12 oz can. They use mostly corn syrup now, but it raises the viscosity of the liquid.

Diet coke is more 'watery' (for lack of a better word) than regular Coke, so it does fizz better. The viscosity extreme would be trying to make a rocket from carbonated peanut butter.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

That's nothing. Check this out http://my.break.com/Media/View.aspx?ContentID=111469

Beware of some of the content on the rest of the site.

Those guys were actually on Letterman last night. And Dave did his own Diet Coke/Mentos demonstration. Of course, one of his guests had to bring up the question about what happens if you eat Mentos and drink Diet Coke at the same time.