Soda And Mentos Experiment

The moment an Alka-Seltzer tablet hits water, it begins to fizz. These tablets are over-the-counter antacids and pain relief medications that contain aspirin, sodium bicarbonate, and citric acid. The fizzing is a result of a reaction occurring where carbon dioxide (in the form of bubbles), water, and sodium acetate is formed. The fizzing and carbon dioxide bubbles are a result of the sodium bicarbonate splitting and reacting with the citric acid. In this experiment we are determining the percent by mass of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) in Alka-Seltzer tablets and exploring the relationship between amounts of reactants and products.

After analyzing and interpreting the data from the investigation, greater Alka-Seltzer tablet surface area (ex. whole tablet vs powdered tablet) most often led to higher reaction rates, measured in gas displacements (which also increased, refer to Table III). It was hypothesized that if an Alka-Seltzer tablet’s reaction rate is correspondent to its surface area, then gradually maximizing its surface area would consequently increase its rate of reaction, due to an increased number of exposed surface particles available to collide with the tap water, which would lead to a hypothesized 50% faster reaction. The hypothesis was correct to an extent - although the reaction rate did not speed up by 50% through each trial when halving the tablet (refer to Table I), it was proved that increased Alka-Seltzer surface area (by halving the tablet until eighths, then finely crushing the tablet) consequently increased reaction rate (measured in sec, ±0.5sec). This variable was measured through the amount of gas that was displaced during the experiment - which proved to be true as well; as surface area increased, the amount of gas displaced increased as well.

A rougher candy surface such as, Mentos, means there are more places for bubbles to grow, or more nucleation sites. (brilliant.org) Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension between two liquids. (brilliant.org) Dropping Mentos in Coke is an example of a surfactant. The eruptions happen due to nucleation where the Carbon Dioxide in the soda is drawn to the Mentos. (eepybird.com) The pressure of the bottle is trapping the CO2 inside. The CO2 in the soda reacts to the sugar on the Mentos.

In this experiment the scientists are looking for how gas production is effected when different sized Alka-Seltzer tablets are put into water. The independent variable is the different sizes while the dependent variable is the amount of gas produced. A constant variable includes the same brand of Alka-Seltzer tablets, the volume of water and same starting temperature. Finally the scientist’s control variable is the first trial testing the whole tablet comparing its reaction time to each new piece.

The reaction you will be investigating is the reaction that occurs when an Alka-Seltzer tablet is placed into a given amount of water. Alka-Seltzer is an over-the-counter antacid and pain relief medication that is dissolved in water before it is ingested. Each tablet contains aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), citric acid, and sodium bicarbonate. As the tablet dissolves in water, the bicarbonate ions in the tablet react with the hydrogen ions from the acids that are also contained in the tablet. The carbon dioxide gas produced by the reaction is what causes the bubbling that can be observed.

3. What differences are there between the diet and regular soda? How does this affect the size of the fountain?

When sodium carbonate was added to the separating funnel, effervescence occurred, inferring the release of carbon dioxide gas as a product of the neutralisation reaction. As the process continued, pressure built within the separating funnel, so it was vital to open the tap, after continuously inverting it.

Why do Diet Coke & Mentos and Coke Zero & Mentos create such exciting geysers?

There are many factors that have the ability to increase the Mentos and Diet Coke reaction. One factor that increases efficacy is the sugar content. Diet Coke is better than other types of soda, because it contains sweeteners rather than sugar. Compared to Seltzer and Tonic water, the Diet Tonic water has the right ingredients to increase the results of the experiment (Coffey). This is a base statement for the reason why Diet Coke is better to use for testings, such as in-class experiments.

The soda ash form experiment 3 was obtained. A 250 ml beaker was obtained and rinsed.

I did see occasional bubbles, which could be due to the slight chemical reaction of the two chemicals. However, it was obviously not as strong as with the salt since the salt changed

Finally, because of the way the drink is made, does that affect the reaction at the end? For example, the way soda is made is with carbonated water, flavored juice, and syrup. Other drinks like apple juice don't have much of a reaction. The way apple juice is made is mostly made out of apples. Also, it contains acid and sugar. There aren't any satisfactory products that will produce any reaction when it is made. Because of this, the apple juice will only produce a little

gas bubbles serves as evidence that the catalase enzyme is working. As catalase is breaking the

Record the height of the bubbles in a table every minute until the stopwatch reaches 5 minutes.

The ingredients in the Mentos and Diet Coke are very important. The structure of the Mentos allows carbon dioxide to form extreme rapid bubbles. When this happens, you get a Diet Coke geyser. Each of the small Mento candies have thousands of small pores on the surface which disrupt the polar attractions between water molecules, creating thousands of nucleation sites for the gas molecules to assemble. (Hiskey, 2013) ‘Nucleation is the process where droplets of liquid can condense from a vapor, or bubbles of gas can form in a boiling liquid.” (Helmenstine) The gum Arabic and gelatin ingredients of the Mentos, will combine with the potassium benzoate, sugar aspartame in diet sodas will also help the reaction. The ingredients end up lowering