Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Crushing Cans

This is what I do. Here's the procedure:


  • Place 8-10 ml of water in an empty pop can.

  • Place the pop can onto the heat source and wait for the water to boil. After you see steam escape, continue to boil for one minute.

  • Use the tongs to remove the can from the heat. Quickly turn it upside-down and place it into a saucer with water (which was close-by).

In your blog response, explain what happened in this experiment step-by-step. Justify the result that you saw. What happened inside the can as it was being heated up? What does the air do? How about when it was placed in the water? Why was it crushed? Did a ghost do it?

28 comments:

Grace H. said...

First you place the water in a pop can to heat it up so its hot. After it has heated up for long enough the water is hot and it is less dense but when it got submurged into the water it instanly got more dense and compact which madde the can get crunched.

Thane Hein said...

There is water in the pop can and there is going to be steam when the water boils and it is hot and then he put the can in the cold water and the there was too much pressure in the water can from the hot water that when it hit the cold water is pop/ exploded because of pressure.

For the next demo the pressure was so high is was trying to get lower pressure and it has to make a hole for cold air in it and it had to crumple up for that to happen.

Lisbeth said...

Mr. Hoegh put about 10 mL of water in the can and put it over a heat source and then after about 2 and a half minutes he put the water in a beaker nearby and put the top of the can into the water. I think that the warm air was starting to take up more and more space and when it went over the cold air it took up less space and the can just lost all the volume and crushed by itself, the pressure outside the can was low and on the outside was high so when the air couldn't get in it was trying to get in different places, no ghost involved.

Quincy H. said...

He put a tiny bit of water in an empty pop can and placed the pop can on a burner. He let it sit for a while and then flipped it upside down and put it in water. The can crushed. I think what happened inside the pop can was that the water heated up and it made high pressure. Then the air inside the pop can had no where to go but when he placed it in water, the air all came out causing the can to crush.

Brittni F. said...

First we put a very small amount of liquid in to an aluminum can. Then we put it on a burner until the water inside began to boil. After it began to boil, we took it off the burner and quivkly flipped it over. The can then got crushed.
I'm going to guess this is because of a pressure difference. The warm water created a area of low pressure while the saucer of water was cool and had a high pressure. When these two different pressures met they crushed the can.

Tahia M. said...

Step 1. After Mr. Hoegh put the water in the can, and the can on the burner, the water started to boil.
Step 2. He took the can off the burner and the flipped it into a cup of ice water.
Step 3. As he flipped it and set it in the water, the can cruched.

As the inside of the can was heating up, the water started to get warmer and boil. Then that air took up a bunch of space in the can. When it was placed in the water, the cold air pushed the warm air out, and causing all the extra space that the cold air didn't take up the whole can, to become crushed. A ghost did not do it. The rubber stamper trapped the air inside, and as the air inside the can began to cool, the cold air took up less space causing all the space that wasn't took up to be crushed.

Emily Ruzhitsky said...

Mr. H put 8-10 ml of water into an empty pop can. Then he put it on the burner and then into icy water or put the rubber stamper on it. Since the can got hot the can expanded and then when you put it in the cold water it shrunk really fast. Cold air has low pressure and air moves from high to low so thats why it shrunk.

Justin p said...

We filled the empty pop can with 8-10 ml of water. Then we boiled the water. Then we placed the can in cold water upside down and it got crushed and popped.
The water inside the can started turning into hot air.
The air turned into gas and when we placed it in the water the air quickly changed into cold air and crushed. NO GHOSTS INVOLVED.

Alex R. said...

1.mrhoegh put some water in the can
2. he started to boil the water in
the can
3 used the tongs to pick up the can
and put it in the water
4 the can started to crush

When the water was heating up the hot air rose. when the can was placed in the water, the hot air took up more space than the cold air.... so when the can was placed in the water the air was cooled down so it had to crush up to hold the less air....

Spencer Swedlund said...

The can and the water in the can were hot and it had very high pressure.The pressure of the water was low and high pressure always goes to low pressure. With that being said, when the high pressure of the can was placed in the cold water with the low pressure, the hot pressure and low pressure switched to fast that the can crumpled. Then the high pressure tried to get out of the can but the thing he placed over it stopped the high pressure from leaving, so it crumpled from the inside.

Kalei W said...

First he filled the aluminum can up with a little bit of water and set it on the burner. As soon as it started to boil, Mr. Hoegh (you) with some device picked up the hot pop can and put it in some ice cold water, causing the pop can to get crushed. How did this happen? I don't really know. As the can was being heater the water inside the can started to boil, making hot air. (hot air takes up more space than cold air. So when the can reached the cold water, it rushed out of the can to get more room.

Bailey S. said...


You Mr. Hoegh put a aluminum pop can on a burner, and waited awhile for it to get hot. after it got hot up flipped it a put it in cold water and it crushed. I think it crushed because of air pressure. The hot air takes up more space, so when you put it in the cold water it crushed because the cold water it more dense and it was trying to take over the hot water so it crsuhed...

Kayla L. said...

The can had very high pressure and the air couldn't escape that fast. The air wanted to escape but when Mr. Hoegh put the tirey stuff over it, it couldn’t. So soon it started to crush. When it hit the cold water it just crushed because it did. I don’t really know what happened it just crushed. It was a ghost.

Jaiden Welch said...

i think what happened is when the air is trapped in from escaping, it also stops air from coming in. the can is a selectively permiable membrane. it doesn't allow the air in. so the air on the outside tried forcing it's way in, it couldn't, but air doesn't know that. it kept on pushing and pushing until the can crushed.

ashton sperle said...

as the can heats up, the molecules start moving faster. when it's placed in the water it can't get out and it's trying to go from high to low pressure but it couldn't so it crushed. then when mr hoegh put the thinger mabob on top it couldn't get out and yep

Maia G. said...

so the warm water in the bottle came contact with the cold air and the cold which made such a difference in air pressure that the bottle crushed
because the molecules weren't moving as fast anymore

Mad-Dog said...

The warm water in the bottle came contact with the cold water in the beaker. Then there was a huge change in pressure. Then the molecules weren going as fast as they were in the warm water.

Robin Hatcher PERIOD 8 said...

a pop can with some water got heated up and then stuck in some water and then got CRUSHED! the can was getting hot as it was heating up. The air was moving fast because hot air moves FAST! the hot air was removed and put into cold water. I absolutly have no idea how it got crushed maybe ghosts exist and you hired one to come and crush a pop can to ammuse us. Or maybe the can was a ghost and it wanted to be small so it got crushed by you... YOU BULLY!

morgan Johnson (: said...

The water in the can started to boil, making the pressure decrease and the air take up more space. The can expnded. Then, the can was put in the cold water, causing it to cool down and loose the opening to get rid of pressure. The water made the can gain density and take up less space causing the can to be so desperate to balance out the pressure, although the opening was closed. So the can crushed itself.

Anonymous said...

The can, with the water inside of it was heated up, and had a high pressure. Because of this the air molecules were moving very fast. In the cold jar of ice water, the molecules were moving very slowly and had a low pressure. When the two of them met together the molecules in the cold water tried to cool off the molecules that were in the can, which forced the can to be crushed.

Anonymous said...

when the can got really hot and boiled the water, you took it out and set it in the ice water. From the sudden change of temperature it caused the can to crush.

Anonymous said...

As the can was heating up, the air in the can was expanding in the can. As air heats up, it expands. Then when the can was placed in the water, the water caused a rapid cooldown of the can and air, which compressed it together. And no a ghost did not do it.

Hanah W. said...

the can was heated up and then put in water and it crushed. and then another can was heated up and put on the tar thing and crushed because it was sucked on the tar thingy.

Seth Huntimer said...

What happened is that the pressure on the outside of the can was greater than the pressure on the inside of the can. This made all the pressure shove itself inside the can which crumpled it.

Kyra Obermeyer said...

I saw him put 8 to 10 ml of water into a can. Then he put it on a burner that was on high. Waited for a few minutes to see if smoke was coming out. Then used the tongues to dump the boiling water into a beaker that is filled with cold water. Then it exploded and caused a hole.
Why that happened is. Warm air takes up more space than cold air. So when it hit the cold air of cold water. the particles take up less space so it crumpled. Kinda like a ball when its flat. So when the burner warmed up the water it caused some of it to evaporate. Then there is pressure on the outside and inside that want out. High pressure is on the outside and low is on the inside. Which made the air and pressure to come out.

Alixandria Brumitt said...

The first thing mr. hoegh did in the experiment, was fill it with 8-10 milliliters of water. Then he set it on a burner for about like 10 seconds. After that he grabbed a pair of tongs and picked up the can, and dumped it upsidown in a beaker of ice cold water, and it crushed. This happens because Theres so little pressure at the bottom of a can and once you mix the high and low pressure together, the air has nowhere to go, so the high pressure crushes the can.

Jacob Whempner said...

As we fill the can with water and boil it the warm air heats up the entire can. As you put it in the cold water the air contracts really really fast and the can moves to be the same size as the air inside of it.

nathan hruska said...

Our GPS was not working :(

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