Over the last couple of days, my coworker was giving repeat performances (apparently I missed the first one) of his Mentos-into-Diet-Coke fountains. First he'd punch a hole in the bottle cap that would serve the dual purpose of threading the loading string and also being the spigot through which the fountain would erupt. He then poked holes in five or six Mentos, and then use the same pin to shove some string into the hole, stringing up the mints in a line. A Mentos' interior is apparently sticky enough to hold onto the string, making this possible. One end of the string would then be threaded through the hole in the cap, so that the string could be pulled out the top and the Mentos released from the line. This was then screwed on top of a full bottle of Diet Coke. Yank the string and run!

Yesterday's test didn't work out so well, and it wouldn't have been spectacular since we used a smaller bottle of Diet Coke. but today's attempt was remarkable. Somehow my cameraphone botched the last picture or two, combining them into one, but you get the idea, and it's an interesting gestalt.