this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
991 points (97.8% liked)

memes

10338 readers
1855 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to [email protected]

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

Sister communities

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 111 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Stupid shape for a can too, tips over In a vehicles cup holder

[–] ramenshaman 55 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Uses more aluminum to store the same amount of liquid too.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (5 children)

You sure about that?

Cylinders of the same volume will have the same area, so it should be the same amount of aluminum?

Maybe less, even, since the lid and bottom are thicker than the sides and on the taller can there's less of that thick top/bottom

[–] [email protected] 65 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Ignore things like the bevel, wall thickness, etc. Just calculating for a basic right cylinder, you can see how the surface area changes for different heights with a constant volume. I've outlined the standard dimensions of a can(inches). https://youtu.be/gL3HxBQyeg0

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (5 children)

I had a feeling it'd math out something like that if I opened my fat mouth, lol

I do wonder if thickness of the walls or lid/bottom does have an effect, though, as there must be some reason they make these weird ass cans

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago

In the grand scheme of things, it's not using much more. And if the prices are correct in OP, the markup on the new can is way higher than any extra cost they are incurring from additional raw materials. They probably had some marketing study show that a taller looking can makes consumer's less angry about a price increase or some other crazy nonsense.

[–] Wogi 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The lid uses more aluminum than the rest of the can, making that smaller will have a bigger impact than the height of the can.

[–] KreekyBonez 1 points 8 months ago

and both of those cans use the same size lid

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

there must be some reason

Just a marketing trick IIRC, since energy drinks got popular and beer cans got unpopular among gen z.

[–] Resonosity 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

True, look at the seltzer market for instance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

pretty sure it just lets them fit more cans into the same box for shipping, same logic as how you can pack more sand into a box than you can pebbles

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

a sphere (think bubbles) minimizes area for a given volume

[–] daltotron 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I always thought that narrower pressure vessels could contain higher pressure, because the curvature is more severe, meaning that for a vessel that needs to retain a similar level of pressure, you could just use less material in the walls of the vessel. Is this not the case with these new cans, and they have the same wall thickness, or is the tradeoff just one that still works out to be in favor of more total aluminum usage?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Force inside a cylinder vessel is just pressure times surface area. If you have the same pressure(soda carbonation) with more surface area, then you are putting less force on the walls. I don't have any specialty in the materials engineering for canning, but i suppose less force on the walls means you could use thinner materials. However, soda can walls are already pretty thin to start with and from what I can find online, the tops are usually 2.5-3 times thicker. So, I could see it potentially cutting some cost from the tops by making them thinner but i doubt they are manufacturing different tops. It's probably just marketing.

[–] KreekyBonez 4 points 8 months ago

same size top/bottom for both; only difference is that the standard has a wider body bevel, and the sleek can goes nearly straight down. same lid on both cans, as well. not sure what it does for the scaled material cost, but since the lid is by far the most expensive part, it's probably negligible, compared to the ability to inflate the price on a taller can.

I can't fully explain the trend, but ready-to-drink (RTD) alcoholic beverages are a big hit for the industry, and even moreso when presented in the truly/high noon shape. maybe it's a generational thing? I don't get it, but I'm also not the target demographic.

bonus fact: the conversion costs of filling sleek cans is pretty steep for most independent brewers, so craft beer will take a couple years to adapt, if ever.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

The easiest way to imagine how cylinders have different surface area for a given volume, is imagine how closely a shape matches a sphere, it should have a lower surface area.

Imagine a soda can with the width of one water molecule. The cross section of that can would be on the order of four aluminum atoms for that hair thin can. Then imagine a can that's nearly a cube or a sphere and how all the liquid can be hiding behind other liquid atoms: hence fewer can atoms per liquid volume.

Blood vessels have high surface area. A pint of blood has low.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That can’t be true.

Consider a cylinder cut in half, giving a circular cross section. Cover each new circular gap with new aluminum.

Now you’ve enclosed the same volume in cylinders, with a different surface area.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You also created 2 cylinders where once there was one, which is not what was being discussed. You even mention that you added material:

Cover each new circular gap with new aluminum

I could have said "2 cylinders of the same volume" but I felt context made that clear

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Yes I did say that I added material. That’s the point: you cannot do this transformation without adding material.

But you’re saying this is only with two cylinders?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I thought the cand were extruded from discs... Maybe they use a larger disc, but I think the taller cans have thinner walls.

Source: https://youtu.be/V4TVDSWuR5E

[–] PutangInaMo 17 points 8 months ago

Shady backdoor deal with bounty I bet

[–] duckCityComplex 4 points 8 months ago

Also more surface area, so it will warm up sooner (I think?)