Under Pressure

Dan asked me a question about a science experiment that he is supposed to do tomorrow. The original question was something to do with trying to decide between a music lesson and science lesson. I'm not much good at those sorts of decisions. They involve people.  But when it comes to blowing things up. Well hey that's what is all about. 

 Dads only get a few opportunities to address science issues that arise when the wife is out so I figured "Don't you ever let a chance go by".

Dan showed me the question sheet.  It involved putting 1cm water in a used soft drink can, heating it until the water boiled and then using a pair of tongs, turing it upside down and puting it face down in a tub of water.  Pretty easy hey.  What do you recon happens?   The water in the tub gets sucked up into the can right.

I figured that I had better resist the temptation to simply answer it for him so I though we would do a slight variation on that experiment.  Like whats so exciting about a coke can sucking up some water.  So we got a milo tin and put 1cm water in it and got it boiling on the stove.  Dan took it off the stove and put the lid on.  To speed things up, he sat it in the sink with some cold water.  I figured the seal would be a bit ordinary and we would hear the air being sucked in or maybe the lid would get sucked in.  Then Kabam and we both jumped up and damaged things.  The whole can had collapsed.  Wow.

Then we got a out of date can of beer and sampled the contenets. Ugh that was a mistake.  Poured them down the sink and Dan put in his cm of water and got it boiling on the stove.  Then up turned it into the tub of water and the dam thing was crushed in an instant.  Blast.  Must have been sucked down on the bottom of the tub.

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Better do it again.  Needed a new can.  Went next door but all the beer was in stubbies.  A phonecall to the Pasco's located cans.  Dan was dispatched and arrived back with 2 more cans.  The experiment was repeated two more times and each time the can was crushed.  I guess maybe the water can't get in fast enough