mento bomb

My boy has big ideas. Sometimes he gets inspired to try an experiment. Much like his delightful mother, when my boy gets a notion he becomes keenly focused on the making of it to happen. He will speak about little else, he will think about little else. He will request the time and materials to get 'er done at millisecond intervals.

The most recent dream has been an, um.... explosive device involving mentos and coke (Don't ask me, I have no idea).

I encouraged him to go for it, but he had a substantial obstacle thwarting his progress: the dude is broke. I was willing to support this depraved endeavor emotionally, but financially? Not so much.

He is no longer allowed to ask his sister for money, because she always says yes and then regrets it and tries to repo and things get ugly. If my boy wants cash, he has to earn it. The kids' bathroom is always up for a good cleaning!

Cash in hand, he hit the market and came home with a coke and three packs of mentos: two of the mint variety (also known as toothpaste candy) and one fruit flavored roll, strictly for eating, because every dummy knows that the fruity ones won't blow up. Duh.

I almost didn't take photos because the table was so messy, but then I realized: 1. I smelled a blog post, and 2. next time anyone needs money they have to clean off that table.

He had constructed a clever model for this experiment. The idea was that the water bottle/rocket would be filled with mentos, then suspended above a container filled with coke.

Earlier versions included a small cardboard disc tied to a string. The disc would prevent the mentos from prematurely falling into the coke. Once the stage was set, my boy would tug the string to release the disc and the mentos would fall into the coke and explode with a force great enough to propel the rocket, presumably into outer space.

The disc was tested, but failed, so a wax paper substitute was quickly constructed. Please note that my girl tuned in to my constant bitching about the building of rocket projects on top of a mess, so she erected a helpful napkin backdrop for my photo.

Once the model was complete, we headed outdoors to avoid blowing the roof off the joint, except in a figurative sense.

  

 And then, the moment we had all been waiting for:

Rocket science is an imperfect art, but you learn more from your failures than your successes, right?

He's already got plans for an improved model. I can't wait to have the windows washed!

And although the mento bomb was a dud, there was a silver lining:

And no one blew up.