Fourth of July celebrations include those spectacular fireworks shows at night, but now you can create some fun in your own backyard during the day!

You’ve probably seen or heard about the now-classic soda geyser, or have even done this yourself – but it’s still a fun activity to do in the summer, especially at family gatherings or outdoor celebrations. Go ahead, create your own soda geyser and have a blast! Your kids will absolutely love it!

What You Will Need:

• 2-Liter Bottle of Diet Coke or other Diet Soda (warm soda works best)


• Geyser Tube and Mentos


• Backyard, Park, Beach – any place that can get wet

What You Do:

• In an open area of your backyard, away from your house, patio, vehicles, or anything else that you don’t want covered in soda, set an unopened bottle of diet soda on the ground. This activity MUST be done outside!


• Remove the bottle cap and attach the geyser tube to the bottle. Make sure not to shake the soda bottle before removing the cap.


• With the geyser tube pin in place, put several Mentos candies into the geyser tube. The more Mentos candies added, the higher the geyser will be.


• Have everyone stand back (or they will get wet), then quickly pull the geyser tube pin and run! Do not stand over the soda bottle!


• The Mentos will react with the diet soda, causing a geyser of soda to shoot into the air! The current record height for a soda geyser is 29 feet high – how high did your soda geyser go?!?

Variations:

• Set up several bottles of soda in your yard, and pull the geyser tube pins all at the same time for even more geyser fun! This is a blast when each person has their own soda geyser to set off!


• Don’t have a Soda Geyser tube? Remove the cap from the soda bottle, then roll a piece of paper into a tube that fits over the opening of the bottle. Tape the paper tube to hold it together. Straighten a paper clip and poke it through the tube to hold the Mentos up. Attach a string to the paper clip. Place the Mentos in the tube, sitting on the paper clip, and when you are ready to launch your soda geyser, quickly pull the string!


• Want a glowing geyser? At dusk, use a 2-liter bottle of tonic water instead of Diet Coke. Make sure to peel off the bottle label, so you can see the entire contents of the bottle. Set up a plastic covered black light near the bottle (the plastic will keep your black light dry). Follow the steps above to set off your geyser! Make sure to use tonic water that contains quinine – this is the chemical that allows the geyser to glow. Quick Note: A battery operated black light can be completely enclosed in a plastic bag for protection. If you have an electric black light, make sure it is a safe distance from the geyser to avoid an electrical hazard.

The Science:

Mentos candies have tiny microscopic dimples on them. These dimples increase the surface area that the soda comes in contact with, and they allow a huge amount of carbon dioxide gas bubbles to form, which then forces the soda out of the bottle quickly.


Click Geyser Tube and Mentos to watch a classic video of soda geysers in action – the video link is at the bottom of the page.


Have a safe and happy holiday!