• Air Pressure Experiments

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This experiment aims to show how high and low air pressure interact with each other.

Drag a pair of tongs to the aluminium can to pick it up.

Drag the tongs and aluminium can to the hologram to fill half the can with cold water.

Tap the portable gas stove to turn it on.

Drag the tongs and can to the hologram above the stove and wait for the water to boil.

Bring your camera closer to the can.

Why are air molecules coming out of the can?

How does air pressure affect the can?

By heating up the can, we boiled the water inside it.

Boiling turned the liquid water into vapour, which is water in its gas form.

The water vapour molecules move faster, and are much more spread out than the liquid water molecules,

They take up more space and push the air molecules out of the can, leaving just water vapour molecules inside the can.

These water vapour molecules continue to hit the insides of the can.

The air molecules are hitting outside the can, thus creating an equal pressure, so nothing happens to the can.

The water finishes boiling.

Don’t forget to tap the portable gas stove to turn it off.

Drag the tongs and can to the hologram to tip the can upside down into the bowl of cold water.

Bring your camera closer to the can.

How does air pressure affect the can now?

Tipping the can upside down inside the bowl of water seals the can, so no air can get in.

By placing the can into cold water, we suddenly cool it down.

As the can cools, all the water vapour molecules change back into liquid.

There are no molecules hitting inside the can, while air molecules are still hitting outside the can.

Since we sealed the can, we are left with very low pressure inside.

Since there is low pressure inside the can and high pressure outside, the air pressure outside crushes the can.

Bring your camera further away from the can.

Watch out, the can is about to be crushed!

You can repeat the experiment by dragging the tongs to the other aluminium can.