The Experiment
UNDERSTAND THE IDEAL GAS LAW BETTER BY THIS EXPERIMENT AND SEE HOW THE IDEAL GAS LAW WORKS IN DIFFERENT FORMS.
This experiment is called the "Can Crusher" and it is a great demonstration of how the Ideal Gas Law works and how it can help us in our day to day life. This experiment shows how condensation, pressure and heat affect a simple can.
The equipment required for this experiment are:
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An empty can of soda (355 ml)
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Heater or a stove
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A large bowl
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One cup of Ice
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One cup of water (200 ml)
Following steps should be taken for the experiment:
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Empty the soda can, fill the can with until the bottom of the can is covered with water.
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Turn on the heater and place the can on a heater using tongs, allow the water to boil until it starts evaporating.
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Fill a large bowl with ice (make sure its very cold)
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When the can with the water starts to boil and you hear popping sounds of the water boiling, use tongs to remove them from the heater
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Quickly place the can in the bowl with ice and turn it upside down
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Observe the experiment - the can should be crushed and "explode"
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Place the can out of the bowl using tongs and observe how the amount of water that remained in the can
The temperature drops when it is goes into ice water. The number of molecules(n) also decrease when because the water vapor is condensing into liquid water, thus not in the gas phase any longer. So the pressure decreases because the lower temperature makes the molecules move slower thus not bumping into the can as much as it did before. The volume decreases because the pressure outside the can crushes the can, inside the can is so low that the pressure outside the can decreases and the volume both decrease which means that the number of molecules, R cannot change and the temperature definitely changes. When observing the water that has remained in the can, more water should be in the can because the water has been forced inside the can as a result of air pressure that has been put inside of the can!