Real men crush 55 gallon steel barrels.
Real women too.
Instantly I wanted to do things after watching this video.
1st - Drink a can of A&W Rootbeer (which is uncommon in Aus, and reminds me of Canada)
2nd - Perform this experiment in front of my wife.
I tried this at home, and got a different result: Instead of imploding, the can sucked up the water from the dish I stuck it into. I was using Coca-Cola; maybe Coke cans are a hair stronger or something.
Reminds of the same thing with rail tankcars. Also see this forum for more discussion:
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=63568
Wow, shouldn’t she be wearing goggles or be farther away? 
Dammit. was really hoping the coup de grâce would be a scissors chop. Stand-back-and-flinch was less bad-ass than I was primed for.
Still slightly awesome though.
Interesting. At first I was speculating that the crushing would be enhanced by some sort of one way valve, and then I speculated that the introduction of cold water to the interior of the can would accelerate the condensation process rather than ameleorate the pressure. The whole thing is kind of a BLEVE in reverse.
Did you boil the water IN the can, or pour boiling water into the can? I think that for full effect it is important to do the first. There is SOME negative pressure created by cooling the air previously heated by pouring boiling water through into the can. But when you boil water in the can, much of the air is displaced by steam. And the condensation of steam is going to create much more vacuum than simply cooling air would.
I wonder whether that power could be harnessed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcomen_atmospheric_engine
I boiled the water in the cans. And indeed, one time I ended up with the can almost completely filled with icewater, so it was full of steam not hot air. I have no idea why it didn’t just crush on that run, but there the can was, untouched, mocking me, LAUGHING at me…
Maybe if I gave 'em a little ding first, like in the “stand on a can” trick.
Well now I have a fun experiment to do with my 4 year old the next time we have an empty pop can in the house that needs crushing. Awesome!
Yeah a little “pre-crease” would help. My gut feeling is that for some reason the opening is to big in your case allowing too much cold water in too quickly. Certainly in the video the opening is still partly obstructed.
I know what I’m doing when I get home.
OzKay, how about slow motion with Thor’s hammer?
You have to watch for a while to get to the good part. Their mistake was cooling down with water instead of ice – way too slow. Allows the drum structure time to accommodate, so now you need a flaw in the drum to initiate collapse.
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