Can you substitute Diet Coke for regular coke in a mento rocket?

No, Diet Coke will not work as a substitute for regular Coke in a Mentos rocket experiment because Diet Coke is a diet soda that is artificially sweetened with aspartame, which does not contain sugar. The presence of sugar in regular Coke is what causes the explosive reaction when Mentos are added to the soda. When Mentos are dropped into regular Coke, the gelatin and gum arabic in the candy act as nucleation sites for the dissolved carbon dioxide gas in the soda, causing it to rapidly form bubbles and erupt out of the bottle. This reaction is not as pronounced with Diet Coke because the aspartame does not provide the same nucleation sites as sugar.