My question is why does something that rusts chemical reaction soooooo much slower than another chemical reaction like mentos in coke which happens so fast?
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Mentos in coke isn’t really a chemical reaction like rusting is. The coke has carbon dioxide dissolved in it, which is part of what gives it the “bite” or sharp taste. The carbon dioxide would rather not be dissolved in the coke, but it’s not easy to get out; it needs to find a place to form a bubble, which is hard to do in a smooth plastic bottle or metal can.
However, a mentos candy has a lot of rough surfaces and nooks and crannies that carbon dioxide can use to form a tiny bubble and then float to freedom. It has so many that all the tiny bubbles form and start floating upwards faster than the liquid coke can get out of the way; this forms a foam which gets very rapidly pushed out of the bottle by the other bubbles that are forming on the mentos.
Rust is the direct reaction of oxygen in the air with water and steel or iron, specifically oxidation of the metal. Since this usually happens outside, where it’s relatively cool, it happens very slowly; chemical reactions tend to happen faster at higher temperatures. If you want to see “rusting” at high speeds, you can simply heat up a ball of steel wool in a fireplace and watch it burn to bits; that’s the same reaction, but happening much, much faster.
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