500 Greater Cincinnatians equipped with bottles of Diet Coke and a roll of Mentos set out to launch the largest number of Mentos Geysers ever to be set off all at once in one location. Drum roll please… and the first ever Mentos Guinness World Record for “Most Mentos and Soda Fountains” goes to a large crowd of wet people in Cincinnati. According to the press release, each of the 500 participants were given nice goody bag stuffed with candy, a Mentos geyser loading tube, goggles and a rain slicker. The loading tube they used is similar to the Geyser Tube but there’s no build-up of pressure like the real Geyser Tube. The guys from Eepybird (the lab coat and goggle wearing guys who created that cool video on YouTube) entertained everyone with a few of their cool choreographed displays and then they led the big count down.

Here’s a look from the inside of the record setting event.

Thousands of science teachers found their way to St. Louis for the 2007 National Science Teachers Association convention, and we wanted to make sure they had something to take back to their students. So, we loaded our trucks with experiments and products from the website along with 5,000 rolls of MENTOS stuffed into plastic test tubes and headed for the Gateway City. We were fortunate to have 14 teacher ambassadors from the Hands-on Science Institute join us in the booth to each share their favorite science activities. Aside from 500 bottles of Diet Coke and a mountain of MENTOS, all eyes were on the 18 foot tall soda eruption chamber. We were demonstrating the new Geyser Tube by triggering a MENTOS geyser as fast as we could set-up a launch (about every 2-3 minutes for 3 full days). At the end of the convention, the soda was gone, the rolls of MENTOS were in the hands of 5,000 teachers, the truck was cleaned out… and we all had a blast. It’s back to the classroom for the 14 ambassadors to start working on cool stuff for next year’s NSTA in Boston.

We’re excited about the official launch of our new Spangler Geyser Tube™. Think of it as the perfect Mentos loading device to trigger a 30 foot geyser of soda. Just load the Mentos candies into the tube, lock the nozzle in place and pull the pin. Okay, it’s best to pull the pin and then run away. The Mentos drop into the bottle triggering the reaction and the powerful soda geyser comes shooting out the top with enough pressure to reach an incredible height of 30 feet. Onlookers scream, “Do it again!”… and you do.

The Geyser Tube retails for $4.95 and is currently only available at www.SteveSpanglerScience.com However, as a result of our licensing agreement with the maker of Mentos (Perfetti Van Melle), the Spangler Geyser Tube will be released into mass market distribution (all of the major toy stores, print catalogs and online stores) in June 2007.

Okay, the secret is out… we’ve been in business for 16 years and never had a PC in the office. (more…)

In addition to sharing our company experiences, I also taped an interview that Apple will be using in some online seminars that will be posted on apple.com/business in the near future. Cool.

What? How did these teachers miss the rich science content that oozes from the bottle with every eruption? Combine the strong science with the student’s motivation to want to use the scientific method and you’ve got an amazing activity.

Brian Rice, a math teacher at Gwinn Middle School in Michigan, recently used the Mentos Geyser as a great teaching opportunity. As one of the experiments, the middle schoolers measured how high pop would spray when a Mentos candy is dropped into the pop bottle. In one day, eighth-grade classes and some seventh-grade classes conducted the Mentos and pop experiment with the objective to see whether different types of pops have greater eruptions. They ended up testing a total of 44 different varieties, ranging from Diet Coke to root beer.

This is a great example of science in action. Here’s to Brian Rice - a great teacher who gets it! Instead of forbidding the activity, Mr. Rice uses the Internet sensation to grab his students’ attention and put the scientific method to the test.

Your can read the article that appeared in the Mining Journal on January 8, 2007.

I think it’s interesting to see how the original experiment changed over a very short period of time. As you watch the video, you’ll see that the simple idea of dropping candy into soda to create an eruption of carbon dioxide and soda morphed into 13 year olds slamming 2-liter bottles of soda on the ground to create to make soda bottle rockets. The later is not really the Mentos Experiment… but it’s fun to watch.

Okay, chalk one up for the science teachers. A silly science experiment became an international phenomenon in less than a year thanks to Google Video, YouTube and so many more. Class dismissed. It’s strange to see how this simple little experiment morphed.

Just the thought is scary… but I’m talking about the popular show Unwrapped on the Food Network. Producers from the show called to see if they could get a better look at the science behind the Mentos Geyser Experiment and to see if they could get a sneak peek at our new line of Geyser Tube toys. Not only did they get an up close view of the spewing soda geyser, the crew learned how to cook with 20 liters of liquid nitrogen.

I forgot to mention to the photographer, Andy McDonald, that he and his expensive HD camera would disappear in a giant cloud of smoke when I poured out the liquid nitrogen. The good news is that no one died when we wrapped up the day with a round of exploding, self-carving pumpkins.

We’ll let you know when the Food Network announces the air date.

I was sworn to secrecy… but now that the show has aired, here’s the question we helped write for the show:

In an experiment popularized online, what candy creates an explosive geyser when dropped into a 2-litre Diet Coke bottle?

A) Skittles
B) Mint Mentos
C) Atomic Fireballs
D) Lemon Heads

This question was asked on a special College Week episode of Millionaire. The participant got it right for $8,000 saying “I saw it on TV and I bought Mentos and a 2-liter of Diet Coke…so I’m gonna go with Mentos that’s my final answer.” The contestant ended up doing really well, going all the way to see the $250,000 question, but walked with $125,000.