The so-called Diet Coke and Mentos experiment is initiated by dropping Mentos candies into a bottle of Diet Coke or other carbonated beverage. This causes the beverage to rapidly degas, causing foam to stream out of the bottle. Simple application of the gas laws leads to the straightforward prediction that ejection of greater foam volume is expected at lower atmospheric pressure. This hypothesis is bolstered when principles of bubble physics are taken into account. This hypothesis was tested and confirmed by monitoring the foam produced during the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment at various altitudes above sea level. Upon further application of the aforementioned principles, a relationship between degassing kinetics, beverage CO₂ concentration, and the size of pores on the candy surface that serve as nucleation sites can be derived. Using this relationship and experimental measurements of degassing kinetics, students estimated that the nucleation sites on Mentos candies are on the order of 2–7 μm in dimension. Students in Physical Chemistry, General Chemistry, and nonmajors’ courses have found these experiments to be of great interest.

中文翻译：

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探索气泡成核的机理以及大气压对糖果-可乐汽水间歇泉的影响

通过将Mentos糖果放入一瓶Diet Coke或其他碳酸饮料中，可以启动所谓的Diet Coke and Mentos实验。这使饮料迅速脱气，导致泡沫从瓶子中流出。气体定律的简单应用导致直接的预测，即在较低的大气压下有望喷射出更多的泡沫。当考虑到气泡物理学原理时，这一假设得到了支持。通过监视Diet Diet可口可乐和Mentos实验期间在海平面以上不同高度产生的泡沫，测试并验证了该假设。在进一步应用上述原理后，脱气动力学与饮料CO ₂之间的关系可以得出糖果浓度，糖果表面上作为成核部位的孔的大小。利用这种关系和脱气动力学的实验测量结果，学生估计Mentos糖果上的成核位点尺寸约为2–7μm。物理化学，通用化学和非专业课程的学生都对这些实验感兴趣。