47 Comments
- heysuburbia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+39I'm sure they'll take ballistics dummy put him in a 50,000 gallon tank of diet coke, unload a dump truck of Mentos into it and watch it explode with a high speed camera.
If we're lucky Kari will dawn a bikini and swim in the giant vat of diet coke while eating Mentos. - dohidied, on 10/12/2007, -0/+26Who the ***** pissed in your Cheerios?
- splatnik, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23Actually, they're not really good at explaining stuff like this. They're great at building some of the most awesome contraptions but their science tends to be lacking on most of the projects they undertake. I love the show and watch it religiously but as a physics grad student I have to cringe occasionally when they start "explaining" phenomena and proclaim myths butsted or confirmed based on sketchy experiments.
Also, did anyone else notice in the intro they have A = 2 pi r^2 as one of the handwritten equations? I'm assuming the art design people accidentally combined circuference and area of a when creating the intro. Not a big deal but it caught my eye. - FullMetalMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23I reject your reality and substitute my own!
- lazyrussian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Best part of this story:
Hyneman also says it isn't necessary to use Diet Coke, that any artificially sweetened carbonated soda should work well. However, he doesn't recommend chugging diet soda and then popping Mentos.
"That's something I was actually concerned about," he says. "I took a big swing and popped a couple of Mentos in my mouth, and the soda pretty much came out my nose and sprayed all over the place. Everyone laughed. I've got this big mustache -- it's kind of my trademark on the show -- and it was dripping all over off this mustache and made a big mess. - slamm6, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15I love their explanation (paraphrased).
"It was the chemistry what did it."
Well, that's good enough for me. Where's the remote ? - vogelzang, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16but WHY?
- octopi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16Can't wait to see the episode. The show's always great at explaining things like this.
- edzieba, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16Unfortunately I'll have to wait a few months to see this because Discovery UK inexplicably re-dubs the show's voiceover and does some minor re-edits for no apparent reason, leading to season 3 not having completed airing here yet.
Oh, wait, disregard that, this is the internet. Ergo; all release dates are now global release dates. *Hugs broadband connection* - MikeSD34, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Or get a pigs stomach like they did with the soda + pop rocks one.
I'll give you $5 to swallow a pack of mentos and then chug as much diet coke as possible. - L0t3k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9
Oooo... note to self...
'"Mentos," Hyneman says, "which is all well and good, and it works quite well, is actually not the best performer in creating this eruption. Plain old table salt is better."'
...time to go make trouble in the backyard! - electromagnetic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9"but WHY?"
The surface of the minted mentos catalyzes the CO2's exit from the diet coke, which causes the mentos to dissolve into the drink which in turn makes the liquid, for the lack of a better term, CO2phobic so where it was once bound into the liquid it now isn't causing a cascade effect releasing all the CO2 in one big go.
One example would be sulpher in gun powder; Charcoal and potassium nitrate burn on their own, but sulpher acts as a catalyst bringing down the energy required for the bang to happen. That's exactly what the mentos do in the diet coke, instead of it taking a few hours for it to go flat it takes a few seconds. - skoles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8lol. What do they redub for the UK audience? Do they have subtitles for slang words & stuff?
I remember when they showed TopGear on DIscovery they had to subtitle the price in American dollars when they kept quoting prices. - elpayo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8His name is Buster. By calling him ballistics dummy you belittle his contributions to the show.
- spidoman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Table salt is even better? Oh it's going to be a fun saturday of science experiments.
- colinnwn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8That's some George Bush science explanation right there. Um... no, that has about nothing to do with it. Its caused by nucleation and carbonic acid decomposition.
- rgov, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8s/was/were (sigh)
- kp3469, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6they are *really* great at blowing things up. that is undeniable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy1b4k4nbMQ - drakonite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@skoles
I've had friends in the UK complain about the different announcer they dub the UK versions of mythbusters with. Apparently he is not very good and is rather annoying...
I'm sure the reasoning is the same as all dubs, to make sure it's in the same language! .. it's not like the US and UK speek the same language or anything *rolls eyes* - nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4the worst part about you writing "excape" is that I just know you pronounce it that way as well. maybe you shouldn't always try to "excape" from the "libary" so often to go drink an "expresso".
(quotes to help the sarcasm impaired) - FluffyArmada, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You would be picking the little peices off of the floor/walls/ceiling. ;-)
- Baloo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Both here in Aus and the UK we often dub out "that annoying American twang!" and put in place our own "annoying accents!"
depending on the show (or tv commericals). The TV commericals are the ones I hate the most. What is clearly an American ad has been redone with an Aust. voice over drives me crazy.
But I can understand it.. it is one reason why I can't buy books from audible.com listening to some of those voices for over 20mins at a time drives me insane. A more neutral accent would be appreciated. - duodave, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Sweet! I've read several explanations about this, and I can't wait to see Adam and Jamie's take on it.
- diafel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow, thanks, I really wanted to read an article about an episode.
- pastasauce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I tried that and it didn't work for me for some reason. Maybe the swig i took wasn't big enough or something.
- lazyrussian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1From what I understand its nucleation that occurs with the Carbon Dioxide in soda's and the polysaccharides found in the gum arabic, glucose, and starch within the mentos.
But keep in min there is also a physical reaciton that occurs (not just chemical). This is the phase change from liquid to gas which occurs when the polysaccharides come in contact with the CO2.
I might not be 100% right, but thats what is think i going on. - DelSolMan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2They should test this... If someone ate a tube of menthos and drank diet coke, what would happen?
- muggin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentos_and_coke
- colinnwn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Reene
It's the carbonation, and lack of sugar to inhibit the rapid nucleation. Artificial sweetener should have almost nothing to do with it. Although I was surprised when he said tonic water didn't work well.
Mentos must be slightly basic, which decomposes the carbonic acid into carbon dioxide and water, which then drastically reduces the solution's ability to hold carbon dioxide in suspension.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleation
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonic_acid
If you get those, you should understand what is happening. - battybattybatt, on 12/27/2007, -0/+1Yes, a "simple" explanation.
- Reene, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2So is it the artificial sweetener, the carbonation, or a combination of both? Well, I suppose we'll find out.
I must try the swig + popping mentos thing though. - battybattybatt, on 12/27/2007, -0/+1And yet your own attention to detail is without a doubt.
- johnmalc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I'm sure this all leads back to some poor Mentos marketing guy, sighing over the better days of "Freshmaker" ads when he actually got a bonus. Suddenly, while cruising YouTube at his workstation, our friend has a little snafu with his diet soda and mints... and he gets an idea....
10 million orders of Mentos later, he gets his bonus again. - battybattybatt, on 12/27/2007, -0/+1And why is the coffeeshop I'M IN RUNNING THEIR Air CONDITIONING WHEN IT'S 38 DEG F outside and why does the coffeeshop advertise Free WiFi but the employees not inform the owner that the Belkin is turned off? These are difficult questions for morons to answer, but I'll wait. Or use my EVDO accunt and put my hat back on.
- smittyfree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Friggin awesome, I can't wait to see what sort of insane, over-the-top stunt they are going to do when the plain coke+mentos experiment doesn't satisfy their explosion quota.
- battybattybatt, on 12/27/2007, -0/+1The sugar in the mentos would counteract the aspertame dietary effects.
- battybattybatt, on 12/27/2007, -0/+1So why is there a "Report it" next to only one username "Atomic1" -- is he/she on a watchlist?
- akashra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A little extra info some people might be interested to know - we recently bought back half a dozen packets of Mentos from the US, and a few bottles of Diet Coke and other US bottles.
We then did some side-by-side and crossover tests with the Australian equivelant.
First thing's first, Australian mentos don't work at all. The key ingredient is the Mentos.
In short, we found that the best results come from mixing US Mint Mentos, with Australian Coke Zero. - Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1its caused by the release of carbonation by surface tension in the carbonated water the mentos hold bubles and it gets heavy enought to the point that whatevers left goes somewhere and thats usaualy up
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Well , a simple explanation, Mentos contain sugar, when u put sugar on the coke, the same thing happens. I'm guessing Mentos cointain soo much sugar, that it makes it "blow up" the way it does.
Oh well, those are just my 2 cents ;). - Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1mentos are porous and they tend to hold co2 bubbles realy well so when the carbonated water gets hit with the mentos something to do with surface tension happens and the co2 is let lose and preasure builds up then whatever can excape does and you have your explanation
- dspR, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5Digg for Mythbusters material!
- lozzd, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Haha! I love Mythbusters..
- terminalpariah, on 10/12/2007, -11/+1On American TV they subtitle any and all accented English. Including Canadian speakers.
- CornStarch, on 10/12/2007, -35/+2Mentos goes in coke, coke explode. Simple
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -48/+1WOW. Why does this STUPID ***** SUBJECT, keep making the front page?
Shouldnt this be in the who gives a ***** category? This is the lamest ***** topic ever, and it keeps making front page. What is this, elementary school?
BLEH


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