A Simple Soda Can Steam Engine

Phase changes are taught at just about every level of science education, K–college. Rarely, however, is it emphasized what an important role they have played historically in our technological development. The boiling of water, after all, was what first allowed us to take significant advantage of chemical energy, enabling us to convert the heat given off during an exothermic reaction into useful work. How wonderful then that one of the earliest and most fundamental steam engines can be replicated with an aluminum soda can!