One upping Dave: A Diet Coke and Mentos Rocket!

[Morgan Gillespie]

Originally Posted by calhounian

That pic reminds me of the first time I stepped foot inside Corey's car. There were liters upon liters of coke on the floor, along with a pack of plenty of rolls of mentos.

A couple of Team 25 members (myself, Bharat, Alison, Alexa, and Morgan) were fooling around with diet coke and mentos earlier tonight. (Liters of Diet coke were on sale for $1 at the local A&P to our surprise). We made two fountains (which the neighbors across the street inquired about), and made 3 attempts at a rocket, only one of which actually took flight.

Yet your pure white "Got FIRST" shirt stayed clean...

[Kristian Calhoun]

Originally Posted by Mercury Rising

Yet your pure white "Got FIRST" shirt stayed clean...

Surprisingly, yes, it did. (Ya gotta love the Holy Cows [1538] for giving out those shirts.) Kudos to them.

[Alexa Stott]

We botched the first two attempts at a rocket. The first time, Bharat didn't quite throw the bottle the right way (throwing it cap-down) the first time, the second time it worked, and the third time...Well, I don't know what happened the third time. But it was a lot of fun.

[Kristian Calhoun]

Originally Posted by AtalanteStar25

We botched the first two attempts at a rocket. The first time, Bharat didn't quite throw the bottle the right way (throwing it cap-down) the first time, the second time it worked, and the third time...Well, I don't know what happened the third time. But it was a lot of fun.

Always blaming it on the programmer....*sigh* [but seriously, it was his fault ]

*looks at own usertitle...* uh, oh.

[Jay H 237]

Originally Posted by AtalanteStar25

We botched the first two attempts at a rocket. The first time, Bharat didn't quite throw the bottle the right way (throwing it cap-down) the first time, the second time it worked, and the third time...Well, I don't know what happened the third time. But it was a lot of fun.

I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag of which Elgin and Ted had been hinting at in previous posts but Elgin did make a Home Depot run for supplies and it looks like we're on the right track. We tried making a trigger device and a way to control the projectory of the bottle. The trigger device isn't working the way that it should but it looks like we're on the right track and it needs some tweaking.

The idea we're using is simple and inexpensive and all the materials needed are at any home center or hardware store, heck you might even have some of the stuff laying around at your house already. Like I said, once it gets finalized I'm sure they'll tell you how it works and even include some photos and maybe even a video.

[anna~marie]

Originally Posted by Jay H 237

I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag of which Elgin and Ted had been hinting at in previous posts but Elgin did make a Home Depot run for supplies and it looks like we're on the right track. We tried making a trigger device and a way to control the projectory of the bottle. The trigger device isn't working the way that it should but it looks like we're on the right track and it needs some tweaking.

The idea we're using is simple and inexpensive and all the materials needed are at any home center or hardware store, heck you might even have some of the stuff laying around at your house already. Like I said, once it gets finalized I'm sure they'll tell you how it works and even include some photos and maybe even a video.

Have you ever thought of using the kind of clamp that they used to Mythbusters (that one episode with the bottle rocket man thing) ? Dunno, if you needed ideas you could implement that one

[Jay H 237]

Originally Posted by anna~marie

Have you ever thought of using the kind of clamp that they used to Mythbusters (that one episode with the bottle rocket man thing) ? Dunno, if you needed ideas you could implement that one

The initial design hasn't included a clamp yet. I didn't see that episode of the Mythbusters but when we were sitting around the table discussing ideas Jeff (Ogre) brought up the idea of clamping something onto the neck of the bottle. If that's what the Mythbusters did then that has been given some thought.

We are 90% sure the control of the projectory has been figured out/solved. That way we can keep the bottle from going near houses, cars, people, ect.
We just can't do anything about birds and insects though!

[Dylan]

Originally Posted by Fruity Pebbles

Wasn't really sure which thread to post this in but....

Which does it work better with? Cold Soda? Or Warm Soda?

I just did a test on that particular topic 25 minutes ago!
(note: all tests were done with 2-liter diet Coke bottles and 3 Mentos in each bottle.)
And the results are:

Cold Coke/warm Mentos
Fountain height: 3 inches
Duration: 1.5 seconds


Warm Coke/cold Mentos
Fountain height: 9 feet
Duration: 2.5 seconds


Warm Coke/warm Mentos
Fountain height: 9 feet
Duration: 3 seconds

As you can see, cold Coke=dud.

[sanddrag]

how many mentos did you put?

EDIT: /me needs to read more carefully.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

how many mentos did you put?

Originally Posted by Dylan

(note: all tests were done with 2-liter diet Coke bottles and 3 Mentos in each bottle.)

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by Dylan

Cold Coke/warm Mentos
Fountain height: 3 inches
Duration: 1.5 seconds


Warm Coke/cold Mentos
Fountain height: 9 feet
Duration: 2.5 seconds

I assume cold was refridgerator cold: ~36F (and not frozen cold)

and warm was trunk of car warm: ~ 100F

which took you from 3 inches to 9 feet

so if we extrapolate up then 200F coke should hit what? Is the curve linear or exponental ?

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

I assume cold was refridgerator cold: ~36F (and not frozen cold)

and warm was trunk of car warm: ~ 100F

which took you from 3 inches to 9 feet

so if we extrapolate up then 200F coke should hit what? Is the curve linear or exponental ?

At 200F, the coke would probably explode itself, no mentos required!

Probably easier to try it at, say, 50F, 75F, and a few others in between. (And make sure you do it more than once! )

[Dylan]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

I assume cold was refridgerator cold: ~36F (and not frozen cold)

and warm was trunk of car warm: ~ 100F

which took you from 3 inches to 9 feet

so if we extrapolate up then 200F coke should hit what? Is the curve linear or exponental ?

Cold was refrigerator cold, but warm was actually room temperature (about 78F).

Interesting thought though, I'll have to heat a bottle in the trunk of my mom's car as part of the next experiment (her car is black and sits in the sun, so this should be interesting ).

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by Dylan

Cold was refrigerator cold, but warm was actually room temperature (about 78F).

Interesting thought though, I'll have to heat a bottle in the trunk of my mom's car as part of the next experiment (her car is black and sits in the sun, so this should be interesting ).

Careful, the trunk of a car can get the coke hot enough to rupture the bottle.

Wetzel

[fimmel]

i just found this on funnyjunk though it was cool so http://www.funnyjunk.com/movies/158/...+Mentos/stream
/forest