Upper School Science Teacher Dr. Megumi Yoshioka-Tarver is taking advantage of Auxiliary periods to show her AP Chemistry students real-life examples of the concepts they’re currently learning.
This week, she vividly demonstrated the properties of gas concepts using empty soda cans. Students placed a small amount of water in an empty soda can and covered the drinking hole almost entirely, leaving a small gap that allowed air to get in or out. They placed their cans on burners, heating the water within to a boil. This changed liquid water to water vapor. Using tongs, the students carefully and quickly flipped the cans from the burners into large beakers of room-temperature water, and watched gleefully as the cans crushed instantaneously.
The concept demonstrated the condensation of water vapor, which changed the air pressure inside the can. When the pressure is rapidly reduced, the air pressure outside the can is great enough to crush it, nearly instantly.
The lab was filled with laughter as the chemists crushed can after can, seeing with their own eyes the effects of rapid change of gas.