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Soda cans also have a counterintuitive efficiency feature: concave bottoms. If a can with a flat bottom held the same amount of soda, it would be shorter and ha

Soda cans also have a counterintuitive efficiency feature: concave bottoms. If a can with a flat bottom held the same amount of soda, it would be shorter and have less surface area, but its metal body would need to be thicker to withstand the same pressure. In the end, it'd require more aluminum. https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/Science-Notebook/2015/0414/The-surprising-science-behind-the-aluminum-soda-can https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/Science-Notebook/2015/0414... ^Probably not the best article for this, but it was easy to find and has a link to a chemical engineer's video.

codyb 3y ago
I think that's also why a pretty small kink in the can will make it tremendously easier to crush against your forehead as a party trick :-) Or, more likely, it's a similar principle also at place in the design.
anamexis 3y ago
Engineer Guy (Bill Hammack) has a great video about this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw Edit: Just realized this is the same video you referenced. All of his work is fantastic.
- hinkley 3y ago
  I really liked this video when I watched it. I may have watched it twice.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  I've encountered a few of his videos on wikipedia (creative commons license.) Pretty neat. His 'drinking bird' video is used on the wikipedia page for the same: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_bird#Physical_and_chemical_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_bird#Physical_and_che...
- xp84 3y ago
  > All of his work is fantastic. Even that is an understatement, I love those videos
gowld 3y ago
Standard video: "The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can" https://chbe.illinois.edu/news/stories/engineer-guy-ingenious-design-aluminum-cans https://chbe.illinois.edu/news/stories/engineer-guy-ingeniou... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw
3cats-in-a-coat 3y ago
Same about waviness on plastic bottles. https://www.riverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/bottled-water-credit-CC-Myrtle-Beach-TheDigitel-viaFlickr-modified-1000.jpg https://www.riverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/bottl...
- rvba 3y ago
  The waviness around makes it easier to hold them too. Although to some degree it might be marketing as well?
  - 3cats-in-a-coat 3y ago
    It's a combination of structural variation, like with the bricks, and branding. Because as long as it's "waving" it doesn't matter how exactly it waves except in some critical areas, like where you hold it, the bottom and the top.
pletnes 3y ago
Also in the current design you can stack them. This is probably worth something in terms of wrapping of pallets of cans.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
zhte415 3y ago
Aluminium's also more expensive than steel but experiences sufficiently less breakage to justify the price.
Cthulhu_ 3y ago
Same with cans, corrugated sides, tops and bottoms are for strength and pressure resistance. Actually most corrugated anything is done so for strength.
jerry1979 3y ago
I think the Christian Science Monitor is perfectly fine. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/christian-science-monitor/ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/christian-science-monitor/
- WorldMaker 3y ago
  The religious group that funds it has a questionable relationship to science including and despite "Science" being in its name. (It was started as a 19th Century anti-hospital group. We'd consider them "proto-anti-vax" in today's concerns and terminology.) They may be unbiased in reporting the news, generally, but there's still concerns about their relationship to reporting science given their name and the known beliefs of their church.
  - yetanotherloser 3y ago
    ...being anti-hospital in the 19th century sounds fairly rational to me?
    - WorldMaker 3y ago
      Sure, you can't fault them for not having some good reasons behind their beliefs, based on what they knew and experienced at the time. You can certainly fault them for calcifying those beliefs into an entire church with rituals/rites devoted to such beliefs that then became somewhat obstinate in the face of later scientific progress and technological advancement (and then because of that also complicit in later struggles of science versus pseudo-science and conspiratorial thinking).
    - actuallyalys 3y ago
      Treating a hospital as an absolute last resort in the 19th century would be rational, but I'm not sure being "anti-hospital" would be.
  - jerry1979 3y ago
    > there's still concerns about their relationship to reporting science Can you provide any credible examples of concerns regarding their reporting on science topics?
oxygen_crisis 3y ago
Same principle as concave bottoms on wine bottles (though the concern there is more about jostling and impact during transport than pressurized contents).

codyb 3y ago

I think that's also why a pretty small kink in the can will make it tremendously easier to crush against your forehead as a party trick :-) Or, more likely, it's a similar principle also at place in the design.

anamexis 3y ago

Engineer Guy (Bill Hammack) has a great video about this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw Edit: Just realized this is the same video you referenced. All of his work is fantastic.

hinkley 3y ago
I really liked this video when I watched it. I may have watched it twice.
mcpackieh 3y ago
I've encountered a few of his videos on wikipedia (creative commons license.) Pretty neat. His 'drinking bird' video is used on the wikipedia page for the same: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_bird#Physical_and_chemical_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_bird#Physical_and_che...
xp84 3y ago
> All of his work is fantastic. Even that is an understatement, I love those videos

gowld 3y ago

Standard video: "The Ingenious Design of the Aluminum Beverage Can" https://chbe.illinois.edu/news/stories/engineer-guy-ingenious-design-aluminum-cans https://chbe.illinois.edu/news/stories/engineer-guy-ingeniou... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUhisi2FBuw

3cats-in-a-coat 3y ago

Same about waviness on plastic bottles. https://www.riverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/bottled-water-credit-CC-Myrtle-Beach-TheDigitel-viaFlickr-modified-1000.jpg https://www.riverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/bottl...

rvba 3y ago
The waviness around makes it easier to hold them too. Although to some degree it might be marketing as well?
- 3cats-in-a-coat 3y ago
  It's a combination of structural variation, like with the bricks, and branding. Because as long as it's "waving" it doesn't matter how exactly it waves except in some critical areas, like where you hold it, the bottom and the top.

pletnes 3y ago

Also in the current design you can stack them. This is probably worth something in terms of wrapping of pallets of cans.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

zhte415 3y ago

Aluminium's also more expensive than steel but experiences sufficiently less breakage to justify the price.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago

Same with cans, corrugated sides, tops and bottoms are for strength and pressure resistance. Actually most corrugated anything is done so for strength.

jerry1979 3y ago

I think the Christian Science Monitor is perfectly fine. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/christian-science-monitor/ https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/christian-science-monitor/

WorldMaker 3y ago
The religious group that funds it has a questionable relationship to science including and despite "Science" being in its name. (It was started as a 19th Century anti-hospital group. We'd consider them "proto-anti-vax" in today's concerns and terminology.) They may be unbiased in reporting the news, generally, but there's still concerns about their relationship to reporting science given their name and the known beliefs of their church.
- yetanotherloser 3y ago
  ...being anti-hospital in the 19th century sounds fairly rational to me?
  - WorldMaker 3y ago
    Sure, you can't fault them for not having some good reasons behind their beliefs, based on what they knew and experienced at the time. You can certainly fault them for calcifying those beliefs into an entire church with rituals/rites devoted to such beliefs that then became somewhat obstinate in the face of later scientific progress and technological advancement (and then because of that also complicit in later struggles of science versus pseudo-science and conspiratorial thinking).
  - actuallyalys 3y ago
    Treating a hospital as an absolute last resort in the 19th century would be rational, but I'm not sure being "anti-hospital" would be.
- jerry1979 3y ago
  > there's still concerns about their relationship to reporting science Can you provide any credible examples of concerns regarding their reporting on science topics?

oxygen_crisis 3y ago

Same principle as concave bottoms on wine bottles (though the concern there is more about jostling and impact during transport than pressurized contents).