1 Soda Explosion

Abstract

I wanted to investigate which soda would explode the highest after I put a full Mentos into it. For my hypothesis I believed that the Bubba Cola would explode the highest because it is a store brand and we have no idea what kind of chemicals they could have put into it to make it taste astonishing to some people. I chose this project because I wanted to do a engineering project this year and I have never done anything like it before, also I wanted to try something new and have a tremendous time doing it.

Each period I tested one soda at a time. My testing was done outside on the side of my house my stepfather and I used a wooden board and put tape on each foot it was easier to measure it this way because where the board was wet that's how high it went then all I had to do was measure it with a tap ruler. luckily the sodas did not hit anyone's windows. Once the soda was on the floor I dropped three full Mentos into each. I did not need to shake the soda bottles after I dropped each Mentos in. After I was done exploding the soda I noticed that all of the sodas went at completely different heights. At first I could not understand which one went higher but after I analyzed it I figured out which ones were higher than the other.

The sodas went at all different feet some I could not accurately identify but I broke it down and got the accurate high. The Bubba Cola which I believed was going to go the highest went to 2 feet and 25 inches. With the bubba cola it was a little hard to accurately find out how high it went. I tested each soda once The Coca Cola went 1 foot and 33 inches. Then, the Cherry Cola went 1 ½ feet. Finally, the Diet Cola went exactly 6 feet which was the highest of them all.

By doing this project I learned that some things you think are the best for you to have are not always the better choice or the most outstanding for you. My hypothesis was incorrect because I believed that the Bubba Cola was going to go the highest out of all four sodas. The Diet Cola was the highest it was exactly 6 feet high. To make this experiment even better I would have tried a variety of ways to use the Mentos. I could have broken Mentos in half then seen how high the soda went then tried it again but this time I could used a full Mentos and analyze how high it went then compared it and try to figure out why which soda went the highest.

Hypotheses

For my hypothesis I believed that the Bubba Cola would explode the highest because it is a store brand and we have no idea what kind of chemicals they could have put into it to make it taste astonishing to some people.

Question

I chose this experiment because I wanted to do a engineering project this year and I have never done anything like it before, also I wanted to try something new and have a tremendous time doing it. What soda will go the highest after you drop three full mentos onto each.

Procedure

• 1. First I needed a long piece of wood to put tape on each foot to see how high each soda goes once each explodes.

  2. I had to drop three mentos in each soda.

  3. After each was done exploding I had to write down how high each went.

Conclusion

I asked which soda would explode the highest. I found out the diet cola was the highest soda because it had one ingredient that no other soda I tested had in it. It went 6 ft high no other soda came close to even getting as high as the Diet Cola. My data did not agree with my hypothesis I believed that the Bubba Cola would be the highest soda out of them all but I was wrong the Diet cola was the highest soda. I believe that my experiment was indeed accurate because I did my experiment in the formal way you would do it. To improve this experiment again I would of at least tried to use different sized mentos to make it more interesting.