Crushing Cans Demonstration

Presenter: Yahaira Orozco

Co-Presenter(s):
Nanealani Steverson

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 22-23

Semester: Spring

Faculty Mentor: Bogdan Negru

Department: Chemistry

Funding Source/Sponsor: Class Project

President's Strategic Plan Goal: Connectivity and Community Engagement

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1rWste5g6Lr1hEPAQA4jbU_w6P3Bgae7P

Abstract:
In this experiment, a combination of heat, pressure, and volume was applied to a can to test and observe how heat, pressure, and volume behaved and how all three factors intervened together to produce a crushed can. We hypothesized that the aluminum can would implode under the impact of atmospheric pressure. Using our knowledge of the fundamentals of the basic gas laws, we studied the results of placing a can containing liquid water above a hot plate and then dipping it into a bowl of iced water once the water in the aluminum can began to transition into gaseous water. The immense pressure needed to “crush” the aluminum can derives from the pressure difference that takes place within the exterior of the can, otherwise known as normal air pressure, and the imperfect vacuum produced within the inner surface by the condensing H2O gas. The difference in pressure stems from the condensation of the H2O gas/steam that resides in the interior of the shut structure as the soda can cools down. The law to best describe this occurrence/behavior is the Ideal Gas Law, where PV=nrT. The results concluded that objects can collapse when the outside atmospheric pressure is greater than the pressure on the inside. Pressure should cancel out to assure that objects-and even people-don’t get crushed. The inside and outside pressure should push towards each other to cancel out so there is no force. The absolute pressure of zero creates a vacuum-like space with nothing in it. This against the atmospheric pressure creates an imbalance and thus the can crushes. (We are not done yet, everything needs to be revised and edited)