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Belgium sets record for Diet Coke and Mentos geyser
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Students in the Belgian city of Leuven, some 30 km (18.6 miles) east of Brussels, have set a new world record for mixing Diet Coke and Mentos Mints to launch 1,360 simultaneous geysers, local media said Thursday.
A Mentos candy 'mint flavored' added to a bottle of Diet Coke causes a reaction resulting in a foam fountain up to nine meters (29 feet) high. Films of the Mentos-Diet Coke mix have been posted on Internet entertainments sites attracting at least 10 million viewers.
The previous Guinness Book of World Records was set in the U.S., when 973 Cola bottles were launched simultaneously.
The craze has developed into an advertiser's dream with a 20% increase in U.S. sales of Mentos Mints last year. The candy maker estimates the craze is worth $10 million free advertising a year.
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Coca-Cola has also signed deals with leading Internet video celebrities and even ran a Diet Coke-Mentos video on its website for three months.
Although there is no exact scientific explanation for the phenomenon, scientists agree that the reaction is physical, not chemical.
The most popular cause is believed to be the thousands of tiny pores on each Mentos Mint, which act like nucleation sites allowing carbon dioxide bubbles to form in the drink. The bubbles form all over the candy and when its sink to the bottom it causes the carbon dioxide to whoosh out of the bottle.
There are reports that eating Mentos and drinking Cola simultaneously can result in death caused by the reaction, but no fatalities have been reported so far.
Source: Russian Information Agency NovostiAll rights reserved.