Camping: Newsletter Challenge (05/02/06)

Just dump them into the fire, in the morning, sift thru the ashes and you will find small globs of aluminum, that you can easily cary out

Line all of the cans on their sides in a row.

Now drive over them with your mega-suv.

Me got truck. Me crush anything. Ug!

Its time to melt down some cans!!!

I like that, but they will be a bit dirty to carry.

Anybody bring some concentrated lye?

Why take cases? A keg is only 1 can to worry about.......

Get a bucket of water (it could be the same one you used for the block of wood in the bucket in the elevator). Pour a little water in each can. Heat the can in the camp fire. Once you hear the water start to boil, with tonges, quickly flip the can over into the bucket of water. The can will instantly implode...I've tried it!

If tongs are available can also think of carefully picking up some embers, put an ember each inside a can and stuff the top of the lid shut... the embers will burn themselves out when the oxygen is over, resulting in the can crushing itself down to a bare minimum. Happy carting. May be easier to change your camping spot and pretend its all clean around you. After a case of beers, who cares.

Ye Olde Boy Scout trick:

Fill each one about one-eighth full with water.
Place them one your campfire and get them boiling.
Carefully lift each one out of the fire, quickly turn it over and plunge it into a bucket of cold water.
As the steam condenses it creates a vacuum that sucks the sides of the can in.

DLS

Yes, but...

Any "old" Scout should already know the "spontaneous" answer:

'Anyone who accepts an ostensibly unfathomable wager always loses.

'Anyone who, without demanding odds, accepts any wager, almost always loses.'

Therefore, the sucker loses; hence, the cans can be reduced with "gentle" handling.

Boy Scouts do not drink alcohol.

Which boy scout troop were you in?

That would work great if you could re-seal the can but I've never found a decent way to re-seal a beer can. Without sealing the lid the can will just suck the water into it rather than collapsing.

Twist the cans, and with just a little inward pressure on the sides, they'll crush easily between your hands. The strength of a cylinder is it's ability to take direct pressure top to bottom; twisting while pressing inward overcomes this. I'm a (105#) lightweight, and have no problem doing this--it's how I always crush them--tends to spook the big burly guys watching me crush beer cans between my palms :)

Hmm...depends on whether the ever-so-gently-twisting hands would constitute "anything so mechanical." Also, the food has been consumed, but what about the fire and the embers?

That is the simplest way. I used to do it with the 60s steel cans,but that was work.

Precisely. A 1/4 turn twist between top & bottom, then collapse the can between fingertips and palms. I always get them under 1 inch in height thus.

The bouyancy force would increase as the elevator acclerated... (This one was too easy so I thought I'd revert to the last question).

P.S. The can would burn if you just threw it in the fire without the water... No globs to pick up and nothing to carry out, but St Rose wouldn't get the benefit of the recycling cash either.

Bears always drink the dregs of the cans and when a bear gets drunk, he likes to clean up the environment. It's a little known fact.

Little known but quite true! His cousin Smokey will take care of the fire too...

If a can explodes in the woods and no one is around... does it make a noise?

Who said the cans were aluminum? Ever try to melt a steel can in a campfire? They had a dinner in the woods and had no steel cans? I would just throw them down the dry well below the lake like all the other campers do.

Find me a Steel Beer can?!?! The Chinese are taking all the steel to make steel mills so they can make cheap steel. The Mines are booming right now, but give em a coulpe years and they'll be tanking again. Too bad really.
Cans of Beans! Now that's a different tune all together!!!

"'You're on!' Who wins?"

Not the cans!

Carefully remove cellphone from holster and call India/China to outsource this "medial job that Americans won't do". You'll soon drive your favorite beer out of business but think of the money you'll save! JR