The Can Lab: The Crush The Can

In the “Crush the Can” lab, we took an aluminum can, heated up some water in it, and turned it upside down into a tub of ice-cold water, crushing it with pressure. The movement of gas particles was a crucial component of this experiment. After the can was placed onto the hot plate, as the water heated up, the gas particles inside of the can started to move faster due to the relationship between temperature and the average kinetic energy, or average motion energy, of the gas particles. As the temperature increased, so did the speed of the particles inside of the can. Particles of water obtained sufficient energy to turn into water vapor, and the particles of water vapor displaced the original air inside of the can. As the number of elastic collisions