Pop+Can+Implosion+Experiment

Pop Can Implosion




media type="youtube" key="vcsxB5dKJMg" height="349" width="560"

How does it work?
Here’s the real scoop on the science of the imploding can. Before heating, the can was filled with water and air. By boiling the water, the water changed states from a liquid to a gas. This gas is called water vapor. The water vapor pushed the air that was originally inside the can out into the atmosphere. When the can was turned upside down and placed in the water, the water vapor condensed and turned back into the water. Water molecules in the liquid state are many times closer together than molecules in the gas state. All of the water vapor that filled up the inside of the can turned into only a drop or two of liquid, which took up much less space. This small amount of water cannot exert much pressure on the inside walls of the can, so the pressure of the air pushing from the outside of the can is great enough to crush it. The sudden collapsing of an object toward its center is called an //implosion//. Nature wants things to be in a state of equilibrium or balance. To make the internal pressure of the can balance with the external pressure on the can, the can implodes. Hey, air pressure is powerful! One more thing... if you watch very closely when you turn the can upside down, you'll see that the cold water in the bowl shoots up into the can. This is similar to what happens when you drink from a straw. Though we say we are "sucking" liquid up through the straw, we really aren't. Outside air pressure is pushing down on the surface of the liquid. When you reduce the pressure in your mouth (that sucking action) the outside pressure is greater than the pressure inside your mouth and the soda shoots through the straw and into our mouths. The same thing is true with the can. The force applied downward into the cold water pushes the water up into the can. To put it simply, science doesn't suck... it just pushes and pulls.