lockdown experiment

 Aim: To see how the ambient air pressure can crush a soda can. 

Method: 

To start the things you're going to need: 

1. soda can (preferably a coke or similarly shaped can) 

2. A bowl of cold water. ( The colder the better) 

3. A pair of tongs 

4. A source of heat (i.e a stove) 

1. First, clean your soda can. 

2. Get a bowl and fill it with water. (the colder the better) 

3. Add a tablespoon of water to the can then. 

4. Get your tongs and put the can over a source of heat. 

5. Wait for the water to start boiling in the can and wisps of steam coming out. 

6. Quickly turn the can upside down and dunk it under the water and hold it there with the tongs. 

7. After this the can will crush itself.

Results: 

 

Discussion: 

The reason that the can seems to implode and crush itself is that the air pressure around us had crushed it. this happens because the water that we put in the can beforehand be boiled and the steam expanded to 1600x and filled the space inside the can instead of air. Because of this when we put the hot can full of steam in the cold water the steam rapidly contracted and struck causing the can to collapse in on itself. This is why the water had to be cold for this to work as we wanted the steam to contract as fast as it could. 

Conclusion: 

When I did it worked spectacularly, though my camera didn't catch the true loudness of the can collapsing in on its self. If I were to do this again then I wouldn't do anything different.