Mentos + Diet Coke =

I thought you all might enjoy the pictures from my recent chemistry experiment. It's a lot more interesting (at least to the general public in picture form) than most all my previous experiments. Thank you J Paul for giving me my first taste of diet coke and mentos as a birthday present - it's led to several interesting experiences, only one of which I have documentation for. And here it is...

this first picture is the set-up (drum roll please)

this is the fireworks, with a lovely shot of me running away

thank you to Allison for the picture of the actual event,
because this is what Tyson got with my camera

As opposed to many chemistry experiments, feel free to try this at home. All you need is a 2 liter of diet coke and 4-5 mentos. Drop the mentos in, and run. If you're scientifically inclined, I encourage you to change the variables (soda brand, mentos color, container configuration), but please let me know what you find. My metaphorical scientific fingers are tingling at what we can learn.

Once you've seen the experiment live (or you can look up any of the numerous young men who have posted videos of themselves participating in this wonderful scientific process), you'll be a good position to appreciate what you see if you search google-video with the words "diet coke mentos Bellagio" - try that one too - it's totally worth it!