The Collapsing Can!

Today in class, some of us did the collapsing can lab. It was a whole lot of fun! For this expirament, we needed an empty amuminum soft-drink can, a 2- or 3-liter (2- or 3-quart) saucepan, and a pair of kitchen tongs. There was a sauce pan filled with cold water on the lab table. First, we put a little water into an empty soft-drink can. We heated the can with the water on the hot pan. When the water boiled, vapor seeped through the opening in the can. We let the water boil for a while. Then, one of us took the tongs and quickly put the can upside down in the water. All of a sudden the can was crushed. The crushing of the can made me emit a frightening shriek. After the lab, I was left to wonder, why did this happen? I looked through my notes and discussed with other people and came to this concusion. I knew this lab was all about air pressure, so that gave me a start to my conclusion. When we heated the can with boiling water and placed it upsidedown into the cold water, there was a drastic change in temperature. The water vapor left the can and into the cool water because there is more room and less energy. The outside air pressure was then strong enough to crush the can because there was nothing inside the can. This lab relates to the Charles and Boyles law which we learned in chemistry.
Boyles Law: -When the pressure of a gas increases at a constant temperature, the volume of the gas decreases. -When the preasure is decreased the volume increases.
Charles Law: -When the temperature of a gas increases at a constant pressure, it's volume increases. -When the temperature of gas decreases the volume decreases
(from my notebook-class notes)
When the can was suddenly put into cold water it volume decreased because of the pressure around it.

This Collapsing Can lab was a lot of fun and I would mind doing it over, and over, and over, and over, and over AGAIN!!!