An Afternoon with Diet Coke and Mentos

My students requested that I do the popular Diet Coke and Mentos geyser experiment for them. I spent the better part of the afternoon trying, not to make a geyser, but to make a rocket. Fourteen bottles of Diet Coke and one hundred and forty Mentos later, I am still left with little claim to success. I can't say that trying wasn't fun, though. With the help of my siblings and Mom, we launched many attempts, got covered in Coke, and laughed while watching the videos of our Coke duds. We have not given up hope yet and Luke still plans on trying to launch a couple more rockets tomorrow. In the meantime, our attempts (especially the second one featuring Luke), may prompt a sympathetic laugh.