cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/27121839
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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surely this uses more aluminum
It may use less aluminum, as the top and bottom surfaces are much thicker
I'm shit at math, but probably not? If both contain the same amount of liquid, are filled to the same point and both are round (which they are lol), I don't see how those would require more material.
And even if, if they double the price per can, it's absolutely worth it.
I found this same thought on this same post a year ago. Someone already crunched the numbers and it seems with the volume constant but height growing, the surface area increases
Original discussion: https://lemmy.world/comment/8371055
A further complication is that the aluminium is considerably thicker on the base and the top.. so there's more thin metal, and less thick metal.
Why don't we just weigh them?
Shut up with your logic! I'm going to the grocery store...
To illustrate, imagine if we kept getting taller and taller - like trying to fit the same volume of soda in a pencil-thin can that's about a meter long.
You use more and more aluminum the further away it gets from the minimum surface-area-to-volume container, which would be a sphere
You have never taken calculus.
No, that's what I said with my very first sentence.
Have you? AP calculus doesn't count.