Atmospheric Pressure Science Experiment

First let me say that this blog is not just for science experiments. However, we have had so much fun with these experiments that I wanted to write about them.

On this experiment, we were to learn about atmospheric pressure. My son grabbed two soda cans and put just a little water into them both... Only enough to cover the bottoms. Then heated them both up on the stove. Now, one thing that is VERY important on this experiment... You must get the water to boiling temperature. In our first attempt, we failed to get the temp high enough. The instructions said to heat up the cans until steam came out of the cans... but that really isn't enough.

So, we finally got the water to boiling and then put each can directly into ice cold water. The first can went into the water with the open on the top and the second with the can upside down.

The first can didn't do anything exciting except just sit there cooling down... However, the second can, as it cooled sucked up all the water that was in the bowl and proceeded to crush the can.

What we were able to see was that the first can, which was upright in the ice water had air inside. The air that was inside the can pushed against the pressure from the atmosphere, so there was no force on the sides of the can... However, with the second can, which was "upside down" in the ice water, it had very little air inside. Because of this, there was very little to push against the pressure from the outside of the can... so the atmosphere on the outside crushed the can.

We were very impressed with the outcome on this experiment. It really helped us to understand barometric pressure.

We have so much fun learning science! It's a blast.

More later!


Heidi