Here’s the scoop on the science behind the imploding can.

Before heating, the can contains a couple of spoons of water and air. Nothing else!

When you boil the water, the water changes state from a liquid to a gas. This gas is called water
vapour. The gas state of a substance has a greater volume than the liquid or solid state so the
water vapour pushes itself and the air that was originally inside, out through the opening at the
top of the can.

When the can is turned upside down and placed in the water, the mouth of the can forms an
airtight seal under the surface of the water in the bowl. In just a split second, all of the water
vapour that pushed the air out of the can and filled up the inside of the can turns into only a
drop or two of liquid, which takes up much less space. This small amount of condensed water
exerts almost no pressure on the inside walls of the can, and none of the outside air can get
back into the can. The result is the atmospheric pressure pushing from the outside of the can is
great enough to crush it.

The sudden collapsing of an object toward its centre is called an implosion.

One more thing . . . you might have noticed that the can contained quite much water after it
imploded. Why was that? The outside air pressure was also pushing downward on the surface of
the water in the bowl. Since the air pressure inside the can was less than the pressure outside
the can, water from the bowl was literally pushed up and into the can.