I think it’s important to introduce your kids to new things. That’s why I stopped by the grocery store on the way home last night and picked up a 2-liter of diet coke and a pack of mentos. It was all in the name of science! Yeah, that’s the story and I’m sticking to it! 
I had heard the stories, drop some mentos in a bottle of diet coke and it shoots all over the place. I had even seen a couple of videos online. Damnit, I still *HAD* to try it myself.
And… It’s really freakin’ cool. In a scientific way of course!
Open the bottle, drop in the mentos and jump back. I had a 4 foot geyser that last maybe 5 seconds. Thankfully my vampire neighbor was available to document the event. I think he captured the moment very well!
Hmmm, I wonder if there’s a way to power a car with the stuff…
Check out these guys, they had way too much time on their hands:
http://eepybird.com/dcm1.html
The real geyser happens if you drill a small hole in the cap of the bottle and put a fishing line through it. Rig up the mentos that when you pull the fishing line out it drops the mentos into the pop. The smaller opening makes a much higher stream. Try that.
Theres actually a contest going on for this, one of my friends has a neice thats about 10 and she heard about it too and got all excited. You can send in your own video and win…Im not sure what though? But maybe your kids…or even you haha…could try it out too? It seems like something fun.
http://www.mentosgeysers.com
I can imagine Charlie now begging for diet coke and mentos to “water” the lawn in the name of science, meanwhile the dogs are running around trying to put their faces in the stream, it hurting a little bit, then them attacking the stream and bottle. Meanwhile, since messes don’t need to be cleaned up, as such, Charlie starts a whirlwind of “scientific experiements with any number of chemicals around. I hope and pray that there is no fire involved.