Re: Amount of Pressure built up in a shaken, unopened can of Coke?

Dear Mr. Bishop,

I don’t have an exact answer for you but I can give you an estimate. 
Assume that a pressure P acts on a column of soda with area A and height 
L, where A is the area of the pop top and L the height of the soda can.  
The work done on the soda will be 
W = P * A * L
The potential energy U of the column of soda will be 
U = rho*A*L*g*h
With rho the density of soda, h the height of the squirt, and g the 
acceleration of gravity.  Setting the energies equal gives P=rho*g*h.  So 
for a 1 meter squirt you would expect a pressure of around a tenth of an 
atmosphere.  

Alternately you could try to write the Coca-Cola company.  I expect they 
have actually measured this so as to avoid having soda cans explode.

Larry