To 75 milliliters of distilled water, you're going to acidify

that with a small amount of acetic acid.

And I'm just using the regular vinegar to be able to do that.

It calls for citric acid, so just a little shot of the

lemon juice, but not much.

The baking soda buffers it.

And to that, there was about 3 and a 1/2 grams

somewhere in there.

And the last little part was the part that everybody

misses, and that's the hydrogen peroxide.

Now, it's not the last, because the secret ingredient,

believe it or not, to make this whole thing happen is

Mountain Dew.

So just leave a small amount in the very bottom.

When you add it, watch what happens.

This is so cool.

Here it goes.

Look at this.

Ah, look!

This is the secret to the glowing liquid.

You can make your own glow stick in Mountain Dew.

I'm Steve Spangler, and I'm all about making science fun.

For the last 20 years, I've been teaching ways to turn

ordinary science experiments into unforgettable learning

experiences.

I have an amazing team who will do whatever it takes to

affect the way people think about science.

And to do that, I live by one motto--

Make it big, do it right, give it class.

Do you know why I love this so much?

Who would have thought a glowing liquid?

Who also would have thought that 4 and 1/2 million people

could be tricked so easily.

It's a hoax.

It's a prank.

You can't do this.

You can't add Mountain Dew to these simple ingredients and

get it to glow.

This is a chemoluminescence reaction.

And you know why they use Mountain Dew ?

I'll tell you why.

Because they're using a light stick.

And the light stick is this color.

And they have to somehow disguise that

distinguishable color.

And how brilliant that they used

Mountain Dew as that disguise.

It's just an internet hoax.

And it just shows you our chemical and our scientific

illiteracy.

You know why I like it so much?

Is because it tricked so many people.

It may be one of the best internet hoaxes of all time--

well, until now.

You know, in all seriousness, chemistry can be dangerous ,

unless you take the proper safety precautions.

Several years ago, we were commissioned to share some of

the dangers of a chemical that's very close to us--

dihydrogen monoxide.

Thousands upon thousands of people, every single year, are

harmed because of this chemical.

And our children are exposed to it.

No, there's no laws.

Well, there are some laws.

But there's not many laws.

It's dangerous.

There's no way--

what?

HIGGINSWORTH: What are you doing?

STEVE SPANGLER: I'm talking about dihydrogen monoxide.

What are you doing?

HIGGINSWORTH: Having some water.

-It only takes one use of dihydrogen monoxide for

someone to become an addict.

It only takes one friend to turn them around.

STEVE SPANGLER: I love that dihydrogen monoxide thing.

Because every year, millions of people are tricked.

And again, it just shows you that people don't understand

that dihydrogen monoxide is nothing but H2O.

But then you understand, right?

Get yourself some fans.

Try this.

They don't need to be super, super strong.

All you need to do is to have them equal on both sides.

We're using Bernoulli's principle.

When you use Bernoulli's principle, you're actually

facing both of these fans in the same direction.

And there's an upward kind of push.

So much so, you can take your favorite airplane--

I like to use the traditional, standard, classic form-- and

hold it right here, in the very middle,

here, and watch this.

Because fast-moving year creates an area of low

pressure, it floats in between.

It takes a little practice.

Look at this.

I had it.

We recorded it.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

STEVE SPANGLER: This little practical joke made people

really angry.

You know why?

Because the ones that weren't so smart went

out and bought fans.

And they sat here for hours.

And they tried to focus.

And they tried to float it and so forth.

And they got so frustrated.

We forgot to, kind of, show one little thing that we did

in that video.

But we showed them next week.

What's wrong with that?

[MUSIC PLAYING]

STEVE SPANGLER: You know the airplane was great, but this

is one of my all-time favorites.

It's not mine.

It was just brought to my attention because of our work

with the people who make Mentos and all the stuff that

goes along with it.

Ice cubes.

Now, these are not ordinary ice cubes.

Although they look like ordinary ice cubes, deeply

embedded in each one is a Mento.

What's so ingenious about these ice cubes with the

Mentos is that we all know what happens when Mentos mix

with our favorite soda.

You get this great eruption.

So this a time-delayed reaction.

You actually take the ice cube, put it in the soda, and

nobody knows any different until melts down and then,

finally, pshoo, all over that person.

Now that's funny.

This is going to be hilarious, Mark.

I'm actually going to drop this inside.

All right.

STEVE SPANGLER: So this is going to be so funny.

MARK: So as the ice cube melts, then

that exposes the Mento.

STEVE SPANGLER: Oh, yeah.

MARK: And we have an explosion here?

STEVE SPANGLER: Oh yeah.

MARK: Completely unsuspecting, the poor person drinking.

STEVE SPANGLER: And I'm going to give you

another one here as well.

And you just hold that.

And it's going to erupt all over you.

And guess what we found out?

MARK: It doesn't erupt?

STEVE SPANGLER: It does nothing.

MARK: You're kidding me.

STEVE SPANGLER: No.

MARK: But It seems like it would.

Well, it's all over the internet.

STEVE SPANGLER: It plays, but this is a huge joke.

This is a big deal.

Look at the this.

They've even fallen now.

You can see at the very bottom here one of the Mentos

already fell down.

MARK: Oh, sure, it did, it did.

STEVE SPANGLER: So I wondered why that doesn't work.

And it all goes back to our explanation.

It's amazing that people have debated this over and over and

over again, and we go back to our regular explanation.

If you want Mentos to, when they go in soda, erupt all

over the place, all we're doing is taking

out the carbon dioxide.

So as soon as you take a Mento-- remember, the secret

are those tiny little pits on the outside of the Mentos?

MARK: Yes.

STEVE SPANGLER: So as soon as you put it in water, it starts

to smooth the surface out.

So instead of being like the crater of the moon, where all

the carbon dioxide can--

it becomes smooth.

So to prove that, because I do have nothing to do in my life,

I decided to take some of these, and I just dipped them

in water and then pulled them out and dried them off, just

to smooth it.

And now watch what happens.

MARK: Nothing.

STEVE SPANGLER: Wow.

That's just amazing.

MARK: How about that?

STEVE SPANGLER: Now you get a little bubbling, but

that's about it.

Same thing happened here.

MARK: Not our usual Mentos explosion, no.

STEVE SPANGLER: I took this and a hair dryer and just put

a hairdryer in and smoothed them out just a little bit.

Let's see how crazy that is.

MARK: Nothing.

STEVE SPANGLER: Look at that.

Nothing.

MARK: Nothing.

STEVE SPANGLER: I even painted some.

See these here?

We paint-- because, again, nothing to do.

Look at this.

Look at this.

MARK: Once again--

STEVE SPANGLER: Nothing.

MARK: Nothing.

STEVE SPANGLER: But isn't that amazing.

It plays so well on the internet that

this is what happens.

Remember, the Mentos reaction works with soda because of

these little tiny pits on the outside of the surface.

They're called nucleation points.

It's a perfect meeting place for all the carbon dioxide

that's in the soda.

You know what's so great about these practical jokes is that

all of them have this quality where the person plays the

joke on themselves.

It's been set up for them.

Which got us to thinking, wouldn't it be fun if

somebody, an unsuspecting person, opened up a bottle,

and it triggered it, so that it just

exploded at that point?

We think we have a secret, and it's right in front of you.

The Mentos are hiding in the cap.

Well, in order to do this practical joke, you're going

to need some Mentos, a nail, pliers, a glove, and a torch.

Now, there may be an easier way to do this, and I'll let

you share your idea with us in the comments below.

But we need to put a hole in each of these.

Drilling them can be really tough.

Sometimes they'll crack.

What we found is trying to be able to melt a hole through

them seemed to work fairly well.

So we're just going to get the nail nice and hot.

Once the nail is sufficiently hot, then you poke it into the

Mentos, perfect, perfect.

And that's what we're looking for, the hole right through

the Mentos.

Next thing, you need some string.

Now, we simply thread the Mentos onto

the string like this.

We just need two of them, because that's really all we

can conceal in the cap.

But two will be perfect.

Give yourself more than enough string to work with.

You simply are going to tie these together like this.

All right, so this goes into the bottle like this.

Of course, we're just using an empty bottle so you can see

how the whole thing works.

The string hangs off to the side.

And you put the cap on like this and twist it into place.

Perfect.

Now, leave the string?

That's not amazing.

So that's where you take your pair of scissors, cut the

string off.

Now we're ready to go.

Take the scissors, cut the string off.

Sure, you can see this little part here,

because you're looking.

But nobody is going to care.