ViralWorld

Diet Coke and Mentos

You might remember it as Mentos geyser experiment, EepyBird Diet Coke fountain

The archive has not found a surviving copy.

2006·Early YouTube

The experiment video that made science demonstration a viral genre.

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
Mentos geyser experiment
Spread in
2006
Began as
A video upload
Where it started
eepybird.com
Format
Video
Era
Early YouTube
Made by
First shown publicly by Lee Marek, a teacher, on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1999
Who or what it shows
The pits in the surface of the mint let the gas in the drink form bubbles all at once
Origin
Origin not yet established
Available
Not held by ViralWorld

Why it matteredWhat changed

Dropping mints into a bottle of diet cola makes a fountain, and it was a television trick for six years before it was an internet one.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    Lee Marek and his pupils perform it on American television.1

  2. Made

    Steve Spangler demonstrates it on a Denver television station.1

  3. Took off

    Spangler’s demonstration spreads online.1

  4. Record

    A record 4,334 fountains are set off at once, in León, Mexico.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asA chemical reaction.

ActuallyIt is a physical one. Nothing in the mint reacts with the drink.1

Commonly remembered asThe caffeine does it.

ActuallyCaffeine does not speed it up.1

Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later

Originally published on eepybird.com.

Where it came fromWhat we know

Original source uncertain. This is the earliest copy currently known.

No original upload has been established for this record. The index is showing the earliest copy it currently knows about, and says so rather than guessing.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

When
The sources below date the original to 2006-06-03. ViralWorld records this as a cited claim rather than an established publication date, because it holds no copy to check it against.
Where
Known on YouTube.

More from 2006You were there

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Diet Coke and Mentos eruption

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

Keep browsingElsewhere on ViralWorld