I started thinking about some of those experiments,
where people add mentos to coca-cola and watch as the liquid
expands, I got to thinking there must be a better way to make this work,
and
there is, add butane instead of mentos, the chemistry is ridiculously simple,
Coca-Cola is filled with dissolved CO2, the CO2 can escape (creating gas) if
the partial pressure of CO2 is too low next the liquid, that's why Coke goes
flat if you leave it exposed to air, next we have butane, which is a nonpolar
liquid at low temperatures, but boils at about 0 Celsius, when you add a bunch
of butane to the coke bottle, it probably starts to form a liquid on top of the
coke (it won't mix), which causes water ice to form, which acts as an
insulator, now the good bit, you flip the bottle, not only does the liquid
butane come into contact with warm coke, which causes it to boil, creating
butane gas but the newly gaseous butane doesn't contain any CO2, that causes
CO2 to rush into the new butane bubbles and expand even more, result? instant
rocket! great video to prove the chemistry, I partially like the 'Opps!',
breaking glass moment at the end, now what shall I think about next?
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