Expansion and Contraction

What is expansion, What causes it to happen?

Expansion is what happens when something becomes bigger or more extensive.
Applying heat to something causes it to expand or increase in size.

What is contraction, what causes it to happen?

Contraction is the process of making something smaller or decrease in size.
Cooling particles down causes contraction. 

Imploding Can experiment:

• Hypothesis
• I think that the can will decrease because it is going to be heated then cooled down. 

• Aim
• To observe contractions in gases

• Equipment
• Aluminium Can, scissor tongs, Bunsen Burner, heatproof mat, tripod, gauze mat, an open container of water

• Method
• Set up a Bunsen Burner underneath a tripod and gauze mat.
• Pour approximately 50-60 ml of water into the can. It should not be no more than ¼ full.
• Heat the can of water until steam is seen escaping from the top. 
• Carefully grip the can with the scissors tongs. Ensure you have a firm hold of the can before lifting it off the gauze mat. 
• Quickly, but very carefully, invert the can as you plunge it into a container of water. 

• Results

While the Can was on the Bunsen Burner, it was heating up and it was getting hotter, once the can was getting hotter we could start seeing steam and the can started boiling. Then we had to transfer the can into the container with cold water and the can straight away decreased in size.

• Discussion
From the results we got from the experiment, the can decreased in size for our results. This was because when the can was being heated it was boiling up and you could see steam coming out of the can, and we know that when you want something to increase it's size we heat it, but our aim for this experiment was to see what will happen to the can if we putted it into a container with cold water after being heated up, and therefore the size of the can decreased because it got cooled down by cold water.