Saturday, March 17, 2018
In this experiment, we tested the pressure caused by mentos and diet coke. First, we took an empty bottle of coke and cut in half, to create a base or launch pad. Then we took a paper clip and put 5 Mentos onto the paper clip, and put that onto a cork. Then we went outside and put the cork with the mentos on top of the coke bottle. then we flipped over the coke and it created a rocket.
Why?
Due to gas laws, and the pressure we created, it created a huge explosion, making it look like a rocket. This is a process called nucleation, where a large amount of carbon dioxide in the diet coke is attracted to the Mentos, causing an immense amount of pressure, thus causing it to explode. Because we put a cork on top of the bottle, the pressure increased greatly. Because the also flipped it upside down and had a base, it was able to fly higher. The Mentos sank because they are fairly dense, and then quickly created bubbles. Low surface tension also helped the bubbles to grow faster. Diet coke works better than normal Coke because it is lower than in sugary water, creating a better rocket.
Gas Laws:
Due to Henry's Law, P=Kc. the p=partial pressure of the gas, K is the constant, and C is the molar concentration of the solute. This is why sodas fizz when you open them. The bubbles form in liquids due to the dissolved gas, and it is easier to form in soda than water. A nucleation site is always needed to form bubbles.
What went wrong?
I think the main reason this went wrong was the weight of the 2-liter bottle of coke. This was a lot of weight for only 5 mentos. We should have either have smaller bottles of coke, or more mentos in the bottle. We could have had two paper clips of mentos and a smaller bottle of coke and it would have flown much higher. Both of these would have increased the pressure, and decreased the weight, thus making it fly higher. Other factors such as temperature, angle, and inproper cutting could have also effected this procedure.
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