Australia's Science Forum

OK so here am trying to get organised for the mentos and diet coke demonstration for stage 2 tomorrow morning (see posts in 'elephants toothpaste') and I was on my 3rd attempt because my delivery tube kept shooting off the top. I was going to try to clamp it on and see if that worked. A few of the teachers who have been monitoring my progress were going to come out to watch. I had prepared the others in the prep room, but this time i'd left the coke behind in the staff room so I grabbed what I needed and went back there to set it up. Well, the foil I was using to keep the mentos separate from the diet coke broke while I was putting the tube on and it went EVERYWHERE!!! There is diet coke all over the roof, in a light fitting, all over the back of the door, it managed to spray onto 5 teacher's desks... not to mention the trail out the door!!! One of the teachers ran out to get away from the spray but unfortunately for her I was running right behind!!! I think she ended up wearing nearly as much as me. My lab coat and pants are drenched (about 1.5L came out of a 2L bottle). The head of senior school just happened to be talking to some students outside and thankfully he saw the funny side, as did the teachers still in the staffroom... In fact, the head even went to get the chemistry students out of the senior study to give them a laugh and some HSC students who were nearby came for a look also!!!! I have cleaned up as best I could and hope the rest of the teachers can see the funny side!! I think I'll be laughing about this all night. Just wanted to share it with you to hopefully brighten your day.

Absolutely priceless!
Pity you dont have CC Tv in the staffroom, that would have been great to post on utube!
You can't say your job is boring.

Absolutly CLASSIC

I have a visual picture of the techers running for their lives HAHAHAHa

Thanks for sharing Rosalie you definently put a big smile on my dile

It just goes to show that the prac reeeeaaally works well. Mind you they may not welcome you with open arms the next time they see you with a 2 litre coke bottle in the staff area. Just love the practical demos.
Lyn.

I havent had as good a laugh for ages ... thank you

Wonderful, but where are the photos. I do not think I have laughed so much.

Too funny, too right!

With a bit of timing you might have been able to get someone who really deserved it!

What a hoot! Like evryone else, I wish there were photos.

I should have stuck to simple, like the test tube and glass option. I just figured with the smalled hole you'd get a higher, more impressive fountain. Oh well!! The kids still enjoyed it. After my excitement in the staffroom yesterday I decided to do a double layer of foil to hopefully prevent a similar occurrance. I think that made it harder for the mentos to fall in, so some stayed in the tube which made the fountain a spray instead. I should also have thought to take a bucket and some paper towel to wash and dry it out each time because the mentos were sticking to the sides of the tube. When I gave it a final trial last night in a friend's back yard it got to about the height of the roof, so today's display was very disappointing for me. Yesterday's was much more memorable!

I'm glad so many of you have enjoyed my misfortunes. No point keeping stories like that to yourself. Looking back I wish I had taken photos before the clean up. Even without a video of the actual event, I think it would have been a good idea to keep a record of evidence - other than the trails of spray along the ceiling and walls!

I'm starting to wonder what could go wrong with my elephant's toothpaste for next week...