Soda Can Design

Probably strikes you as an odd topic. We talk here about some cutting edge concepts and technologies and usually household technology is ignored. Now, to the background.

I was reading Penn and Teller's "How To Play In Traffic" and they said with new beer and soda can designs, you can shake the krump outta them and yet safely open them about 30 seconds after. Not entirely sure they weren't playing a trick on me through the book (if you know of Penn, you'll understand this suspicion), so I tried it. Shook the crap out of a Diet Coke can (don't care much for it, wouldn't mind if I wasted it ), set it down for about 30 seconds, and cracked it open, holding it as far from myself as I could. Nothing. The technology is there!

So can anyone explain how this works? The can I have now looks exactly as I remember the cans growing up, but if the change was subtle or gradual, I could understand how I would miss it. What have they done to change the cans, and how did it work?

Interesting...now, are you sure you didn't get splashed?
And now you're taking it out on other unsuspecting soda drinkers?
I mean, Penn and Teller..

Just kidding.

I will have to try this at home..errr, on the back porch. just in case..
I wonder if it has anything to do with the concave bottoms on the cans..
Maybe you just can't stir it up enough inside the can..?

Did you know that even with the "old"version of soda can, all you have to do is tap it sharply with your finger on the top and you can open it anyways. Shook cans never stopped me. Tap, Tap, Tap works every time.

Yeah, I remember the tapping trick. That's why I never gave much thought to the current design of cans. Every time I grab a pop or beer, I usually just tap the top with my fingernail 4 or 5 times before opening it. Now, I suspect, all that's doing for me is helping me burn part of those calories I'm about to put into my system.

...'Spose I'll be discovering soon how hard that habit is to break, too...

EDIT: Also, spacedoubt, if you shake it like mad and open it right away (without squeezing the can, part of the Penn and Teller trick), it will explode. Before editing this, I tested it out

[edit on 7-15-2005 by junglejake]

I believe this is basic physics. The carbon dioxide in soda is very stable at 34 degrees. The higher the temperature, the higher the pressure. Try shaking a can right out of your refrigerator (34 degrees) and then shake a can at room temperature (70 degrees). Shake that second can out in your backyard .

WEll, yeah. I mean, I really liked to heat my pop up when I was a kid because I liked carbonation.

However, experimentation dictates that things were changed. I developed a habit of tapping the top of my ice cold coke 4 or 5 times because they had exploded on me in the past. Now, under the same circumstances with a room temperature (in Chicago, in late July, without the AC on) Diet Coke (more carbination than regular coke, according to my tongue) didn't blow up. Yet it did when I shook it and opened it immediately.

Your logic is sound. More carbondioxide becomes a gas in higher temps than in lower. But these two events (more, far mor events for the explosion) show that something other than the temp changed. The only variable here that would account for the non-explosive nature of my D.C. was time. 10 years ago, boom. Today, nothin'. Worse circumstances. That's why I want to know what changed.

I found a good resource that may answer a couple questions about your soda query.

www.snopes.com...

Apparantly, tapping a soda can does not keep it from making a mess on the floor.

The answer is head space.

The manufacturers are putting less soda in the cans. If you shake a soda can, then allow it to rest 30-seconds. The carbon dioxide will separate from the soda and collect in the head space between the surface of the soda and the top of the can. Open the top releases the pressure and that same pressure keeps the soda in the can.

In theory, (my head is starting to hurt now) if you shake a can and open it upside down. Instead of liquid pouring out of the can, it will explode.

Now an adult beverage question. At what temperature will a bottle of beer form ice on the exterior of the bottle, yet not freeze and taste the best?

Originally posted by Silent Professional


Now an adult beverage question. At what temperature will a bottle of beer form ice on the exterior of the bottle, yet not freeze and taste the best?

I believe that would be 41 degrees sir. I know my beer care very well

Or you can go the other way too: A can that heats itself using calcium oxide and water.

Single-serving coffee can heats itself
Convenience is about to take on new meaning in the coffee aisle: single-serving coffee in a can that heats itself.
www.usatoday.com...

Thanks for the the beer temp pointer *runs to change the beer fridge temp*

The magic temperature for beer is 28 degrees. Cold enough to form ice on the outside of the bottle, but not cold enough to freeze the beer. Simple physics.

And a beer that is 28 degrees is perfect. We set-up a few beer coolers for a Budweiser distributor in Columbus, Ohio. The sales rep pulls out a frosted bottle of beer and smiles. He replies " A perfectly cooled bottle of beer, magic, and if you had tits I would marry you ... "

Other beer question ... Which freezes first Miller or Budweiser?

Have you ever walked up to someone holding a long neck bottle of beer and take your bottle and bring the flat part of it down and tap the open top of his beer?

if you do this right, the other guys beer will foam all over the place.

Originally posted by HowardRoark
Have you ever walked up to someone holding a long neck bottle of beer and take your bottle and bring the flat part of it down and tap the open top of his beer?

if you do this right, the other guys beer will foam all over the place.

You can actually blow the bottom of a bottle off using a similar method. My cousin did it to me and I was covered with beer. You just open a bottle, and right after that bring your palm flatly down on the opening. The pressure will blow the bottom of the bottle off in a perfect circle. It's a lot of fun, but only works wth certain kinds of bottles. I know MGD and Bud work, but Guiness and Heinekin do not. Those are the only 4 I've tried it on, the others may or may not work.

Originally posted by junglejake

You can actually blow the bottom of a bottle off using a similar method. My cousin did it to me and I was covered with beer. You just open a bottle, and right after that bring your palm flatly down on the opening. The pressure will blow the bottom of the bottle off in a perfect circle. It's a lot of fun, but only works wth certain kinds of bottles. I know MGD and Bud work, but Guiness and Heinekin do not. Those are the only 4 I've tried it on, the others may or may not work.

I wouldn't try that now. They have started making beer bottles with thinner walls to save glass and cut down the weight for shipping. If you get the wrong type of bottle or one with an imperfection in the wrong place who ever is holding the bottle can get their hand chewed up pretty good.

Originally posted by HowardRoark
Have you ever walked up to someone holding a long neck bottle of beer and take your bottle and bring the flat part of it down and tap the open top of his beer?

if you do this right, the other guys beer will foam all over the place.

I used to do this all the time.. nothing more amusing then walking up to a friend and saying.. "I hope you're thirsty, cuz if you want that beer, you need to drink it all now" *Tap*

Originally posted by JIMC5499

Originally posted by junglejake

You can actually blow the bottom of a bottle off using a similar method. My cousin did it to me and I was covered with beer. You just open a bottle, and right after that bring your palm flatly down on the opening. The pressure will blow the bottom of the bottle off in a perfect circle. It's a lot of fun, but only works wth certain kinds of bottles. I know MGD and Bud work, but Guiness and Heinekin do not. Those are the only 4 I've tried it on, the others may or may not work.

I wouldn't try that now. They have started making beer bottles with thinner walls to save glass and cut down the weight for shipping. If you get the wrong type of bottle or one with an imperfection in the wrong place who ever is holding the bottle can get their hand chewed up pretty good.

No matter how thin the glass is, the weakest point will be where the bottom and and sides are fused. Unless you're tapping it on its side while holding the bottle (not the neck) on concrete, the bottom is the first point that's going to go. Plus, the force is being directed towards the bottom of the bottle, not the sides. The bottle is acting as a sort of directional tube guiding the pressure you exert with your hand through to the bottom. The force isn't actually on the glass its self, but rather the forcing of more air into the bottle.

Claim: Tapping a soda can will prevent its contents from foaming over when you open it.

[color=#CC0000]Status: False.

Tapping the can will not scare the carbon dioxide into staying inside, nor will it frighten the bubbles into collapsing back into the solution. Some people advocate the theory that the tapping process looses collected bubbles from wherever they've adhered to the inside of the can and causes them to rise to the top of the solution, thereby lessening the amount of "stuff" they expel when the can is opened. However, tapping does nothing to reincorporate the carbon dioxide into the solution, the key element to preventing the dread foam-out.

www.snopes.com...

Claim: Tapping a soda can will prevent its contents from foaming over when you open it.

Status: False.

Snopes probably should have given that one a red/green share. While the actual act of tapping the can doesn't do anything, it delays your opening it long enough for the contents to become less explosive.

Originally posted by junglejake
[No matter how thin the glass is, the weakest point will be where the bottom and and sides are fused. Unless you're tapping it on its side while holding the bottle (not the neck) on concrete, the bottom is the first point that's going to go. Plus, the force is being directed towards the bottom of the bottle, not the sides. The bottle is acting as a sort of directional tube guiding the pressure you exert with your hand through to the bottom. The force isn't actually on the glass its self, but rather the forcing of more air into the bottle.

I've designed the molds for bottles including beer bottles. The bottom isn't fused. The glass comes into the neck mold and is pulled into position using vacuum. If you look just below the neck of a bottle you will see a series of dimples around the bottle that is for the vacuum points. Once the gob is pulled down a plunger comes up thru the center. The top half of the mold is clamped around the gob and air is blown in thru the depression made by the plunger, inflating the bottle inside the mold. To make a thinner bottle you just adjust the weight of the gob of glass. If there is a weak point anywhere on the length of the bottle that is where it will break. You just have been lucky so far.

Originally posted by junglejake

Snopes probably should have given that one a red/green share. While the actual act of tapping the can doesn't do anything, it delays your opening it long enough for the contents to become less explosive.

Same analogy could be applied if it was believed picking your nose before opening a can of soda prevented foaming, which makes anything that delays the opening relevant, hence I agree with the false status.