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What variables effect a steam/pressure can crushing project?

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I missed a week of school where, in my chemistry class, we did this great big project called the "CanDo Can Crushing Project". The basics of the whole thing is you take a clean aluminum (soda) can, put a little bit of water in it, and heat it on a bunsen burner. Then when it gets real hot 'n steamy you use tongs to invert it, or flip it onto a pan of cool water. This crushes it, at least partially. Please, any of this sound familiar? So now I'm stuck writing an essay, the outline of which is meant to be a presentation outline. Like for people who actually collected data for this sort of thing. I understand what makes the can crush (outside pressure, not just the steam-to-water made vacuum), but one of the questions on the outline for my essay is as follows: What variables affect the amount of can crush? Me: "Wha...?" Please somebody be my guiding star and help me, this is worth a huge grade and I've gotta feeling the teacher's going to notice if I bs my way through it, lol.