Use the experiment video below to do this experiment yourself! Then, read the explanation below the video that tells you what happened.
What Happened During the Experiment?
When you poured the hot water into the soda can, the water vapor or steam pushed all of the gases, like Oxygen or Nitrogen, outside of the can. Then, when you put the can inside of the tub of water, upside down, the water sealed the can shut from the outside air. The cold water in the tub also cooled the boiling water inside of the can down. Then, when we poured the ice-water on top, the water cooled even more and the molecules started to bunch up together inside of the can. As that happened, the outside air pressure was greater than the air pressure inside of the can (because the air had been pushed out earlier by steam), the can gets crushed!