RP sets new world record for soda geysers
The Philippines broke a world record after thousands of students produced soda geysers simultaneously.
Exactly 2,856 students from Rizal Technical University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Adamson University, University of the Philippines and Jose Rizal University took part in record-breaking event at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City.
To produce soda geysters, students dropped Mentos candies into a soda bottle at the same time to set off “soda fountains.”
Philippines has beaten the previous record set by Mexico of 2,433 soda fountains.
Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz of Eepy bird, the people who conceptualized the Mentos soda geyser, explained that contrary to popular belief, the soda fountain is created because of a physical reaction between the soda and the sugar from the candy and not because of any chemical reaction.
They said the fizz or carbon dioxide from the soft drink needs to escape. The sugar from the candy helps set off the fizz.
Fritz Grobe added, “With Mentos it’s super powerful because the final stage of making a Mentos is spraying it with 40 layers of liquid sugar. It means that microscopically, there are hundreds of thousands of bumps, meaning there are hundreds and thousands of places for bubbles to grab onto. All these power has to go somewhere (and the fizz) comes flying out of the bottle.”
The Eepy bird officials also said that the soda geysers just proved that “objects in our everyday life can do surprising things.”
By Jason Domantay
Yahoo! Southeast Asia
