I have had the mentos and soda expiriment on my mind for a while. I was wondering, what happens when you do it in outer space? I know that liquids form perfact spheres in space, so you dont need the bottle. If you had a perfect cola sphere, stuck a mentos on the end of a stick and stuck it in the center of the sphere, what would happen? I know the chances of sombody giving me a difinitve answer is slim to none, and the chances of Nasa making a huge mess in their ship are even more slim, so what do you think will happen?
Hard question... Well, there isn't oxygen on space, this is the best I know. I do not know, but maybe the space lack more than just this gas. So the reaction would be different, I think.
Well. It's kind of like shooting a gun in space. Will it work? In theory it would, but it hasn't actually been tested. It might come out fast at first, but then just kinda float around. IMO.
Well, I am not talking in the actual vaccume, I mean in the space station itself. In the vaccume of space, NASA would probably test it, they wouldnt need to clean it up. However, the soda would become instantly flat and not even fizz.
Not in deep space. Guns create explosions. The explosion that a gun works off of is based off of combustion. It's impossible to have combustion without oxygen. So in theory it wouldn't work. Also, since there's no friction in space there's nothing to slow it down so it would stay fast forever. Though...a bullet does travel slowly in terms of relativity. As for the actual question at hand. A chemist would have a better idea than I do on how this would work. If the reaction does not need environmental oxygen then I can answer this quite easily. It would act like an expanding sphere of gas and whatever compounds the mixture would create at a fixed velocity once the reactants have been used up. So yeah...you'd basically have a sphere of "stuff" expanding if you got the reaction to happen at dead center. Then again...eh. *Shrug* Someone who knows more about soda and said reaction would give a better answer. Obviously this doesn't need to be tested because some badass physicist/chemist would be able to answer your question damn near instantly.
Do you know any off the top of your head? lol (that is an epic sig about epicness by the way lol. Nice use of Chuck Norris.) But I must admit, that is the best answer I have gotten so far :D And I am assuming if they actually did test the gun in space, they probably did it in the space station, meaning there is air resistance to slow it down. Though, I doubt the station is long enough for the air resistance to stop it. I assume its in the station because you are correct, the actual firing requires oxygen. They would have to build some kind of rig to fo it in space. Probably a pump with a small flexible tube that gives the powder air. But thinking about it, how would the find the bullet or even be able to watch it slow down?
Thanks. XD Unless the entire length of the space station was used for an experiment like that, air resistance is entirely negligible since the bullet would barely slow down in such a short distance. On Earth the bullet would of course, slow down, then curve downwards due to gravity. Fun fact, a fired bullet would take about as long to hit the ground as if you threw it forward and just let gravity act. The only thing is that you'd probably never see this because the bullet is more than likely going to hit something way before then. Anyways, to answer your question...You should watch Mythbusters. We've got high speed cameras that can easily see a traveling bullet. They only go like...3 or 4 thousand meters a second so that isn't too hard to get a rig set up for an experiment like this considering you're talking about NASA. Doing something like this would be child's play to them and admittedly fun.
I have seen that episode, and I get what you are saying, however, just because you see how fast it is going, doesnt mean you can follow that bullet all the way to where it stops, or if it stops for that matter. And yes, it would probably be pretty easy. Put the gun in a sealed box, remotly fire the gun, and have the bullet smash through somthing strong enough to hold the vaccume, but weak enough to be smashed through. You can see it goes faster than on earth, or maybe slower, but afterwards, it just flew that way. Your still floating there, and by the time you even turn around, the bullet is gone. So how do you see what happens? Well, then agian I guess you could put a tracker on it or somthing, but how long untill it goes out of range, or it comes across somthing with enough gravity to pull it down and stop it?
The coke and mento thing doesn't use any external oxygen: it uses the CO2 already in the bottle. The theory (and science) behind the coke and mentos erupting, for lack of a better term, is that the mento adds surface area to the coke. Bubbles can form on this surface area and as the mento dissolves, it creates more surface area, thus more bubbles. If you've ever tried the stuff left over at the bottom if the coke bottle, it's flat, because there's no CO2 left. Don't believe me about the surface area? Scratch the inside of a plastic cup with a (clean) nail and pour in coke. It'll make more bubbles than an unscratched cup. As for whether it'll work in space, that depends on whether the CO2 is still in the coke. Unless it's pressurized, the CO2 will escape and the experiment won't work. If this us done on a space shuttle, however, yes, it will likely work. It won't require any external oxygen because it only reacts with the CO2 in the coke. It will not work in deep space, because the low pressures will cause the CO2 to escape, as previously mentioned. Also, just as a side note, not all liquids form spheres. Only polar ones.
