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Mathematics AA SL Mathematical Exploration

Can a can get more efficient?

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Optimization of various shapes of tin cans in terms of: minimal surface area
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and percentage space loss when stored in boxes of 6.
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Number of pages: 15
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Introduction

“Most of us interact with soda cans every day, so it's easy to forget that their design is the
result of brilliant engineering and manufacturing carefully honed over decades. […]”
– Jeff Ward-Bailey1
Tin cans come in multiple shapes and sizes, and are used to store various materials, from gas under

pressure, through soda drinks to pasteurized food. Although tin cans have been around for over 200

years,2 they are unchangeably reliable and irreplaceable as a storing method. Since their invention, there

have been multiple attempts, both successful and not, to make tin cans cheaper, easier to open and more

resistant to potential damage.

The history of tin cans began in 1795, when

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Napoleon set up a prize of 12000 franks (worth

about 62200 US dollars in 20153) for anyone

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who would invent a method for long- term

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preservation of food for the French army and

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navy. The contest was won almost 15 years

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Image 1. Picture of an original tin can 2

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later, in 1809, by Nicholas Appert, who came

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up with sterilization 50 years before Louis Pasteur proved that heat kills bacteria (hence the process now
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known as pasteurization). The first ever patent for a tin can was claimed a year later by a British
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merchant Peter Durand, who invented the first tin can (Image 1).

Since then tin cans were upgraded multiple times: the rim for automatic sealing was introduced in 1847

by Allen Taylor. In 1849 the pendulum press was invented speeding up the production of cans; form 6

per hour (in early Bryan Donkin’s factory in 1813) to even 60 cans per hour. Later on, different shapes

1
Ward-Bailey, J. (2015, April 14). The surprising science behind the aluminum soda can. The Christian Science Monitor;
The Christian Science Monitor. https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/Science-Notebook/2015/0414/The-surprising-
science-behind-the-aluminum-soda-can
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History of the Can - Can Manufacturers Institute | Washington, DC. (n.d.). Www.cancentral.com.
https://www.cancentral.com/can-stats/history-of-the-can
3
Historical Currency Converter. (n.d.). Www.historicalstatistics.org.
https://www.historicalstatistics.org/Currencyconverter.html

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were invented (Image 2&3), and till today both the shape of tin cans and ways of opening them are still

being improved. 2

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Image 2. “1898 advertisement showing the trapezoidal can Image 3. “A typical late-19th-century-style tin of corned
of Libby, McNeill & Libby's canned corned beef” 2 beef with a key (beef pictured is not actually from the 19th

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century).” 4
gm
I became interested in the topic of tin cans because of my cats. I have three of them and they need to be
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fed both dry and wet food daily. Every day as a first thing in the morning I grab a tin can with cat food
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and fulfil my duty. When I buy canned cat food, it comes in packages of 6 circular cylinders in a
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rectangular canton box (Image 5).

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Image 4. Picture of a box of tin cans from above Image 5. Picture of a box of tin cans from the side

(author's own photo) (author's own photo)

4
Don’t lose a finger: The 200-year evolution of the can opener. (2017, November 27). Ars Technica.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/11/dont-lose-a-finger-the-200-year-evolution-of-the-can-opener/

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I noticed, that there are spaces in between cans (Image 4), which leads to storage space losses, especially

in stores, where hundreds of cans are stored at once. I wondered, whether different shapes of cans could

fill the space more efficiently? At the same time, I am aware that companies aim to use minimum amount

of metal on one can in order to save money.

My attempts to imagine the most optimal tin can for cat food are what inspired this exploration. I tried

to take into consideration both minimal surface area and maximum filling of space in a rectangular

carton box. When trying to decide can shapes to investigate, I decided on prisms with bases of regular

polygons. Having a prism with 2 identical parallel bases allows me to avoid a problem that the can

showed on Image 2 would create when stored: sides of cans next to each other would not touch on all

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of their surface, and hence more space in between cans would be wasted. A reason for not considering

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an irregular rectangular prism can, like the one on Image 3, is that the base edges ratio is unknown,

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hence creating the need for an additional variable for one of the base edges and significantly increasing
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the difficulty of the problem.

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Hence the properties of cans considered in this exploration are:

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a) all sides of the polygon at base are equal;

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b) all of the interior angles of the base are equal;

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c) all of the interior angles of the base are less than 180°;
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d) regular polygons are convex- all vertices of the polygon at base point outwards.

The aim of this work is to it find a pattern (if one exists) between increasing number of base edges,

minimal surface area and percentage space loss in a box, which will allow me to find the optimal shape

of a can of cat food with fixed volume. The volume is going to be determined as a next step, based on a

can of cat food that I regularly use. I am going to investigate prism- shaped cans with regular bases in

shapes of a: triangle, square, pentagon and hexagon.

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Finding the volume (V) of a cat food can

The first thing that had to be determined for this exploration is

how big (in sense of its volume) actually is a cat food can? For

further comparison of surface area and percentage space loss

between cans the volume of cat food inside has to be fixed. In

order to keep the investigation applicable in the real world, I

decided to measure a realistic volume of a tin can containing

400g of cat food. I did that by measuring the diameter of the

circle at base and height of the can using a ruler (accurate to 1

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Image 6. Photo of a cat food can with
millimetre, hence 1 decimal place). Then I subtracted the
dimensions measured by a ruler [cm]

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height of the rim (two times 0.1cm) from the total height

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gm
(10.2cm), as it doesn’t contain any food inside.
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7.5 2
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𝑉= 𝜋𝑟 2 × ℎ = 𝜋 × ( ) × 10.0 ≈ 441.79 ≈ 442[𝑐𝑚3 ]

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For further calculations I will use the volume of a tin can accurate to 5 significant figures, as it is not an
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end result, but only used to obtain one, which I intend to get with accuracy of 3 significant figures.
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Optimization of surface area (SA) for various tin can shapes

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Using the volume found in the section above, I am going to determine the minimum surface area of

metal required to enclose 400g (or 442 cm3) of cat food in different prism shaped tin cans. What matters

to can producers is the amount of metal needed to create a can, given for example in cubic centimetres.

For the purposes of this investigation I assume that all of the cans considered are made of a metal plate

of the same thickness, which eliminates this aspect out of the comparison. That’s why it is sufficient to

minimize surface areas of cans to compare them fairly. Mathematical tool used for optimization is

derivative.

My calculations for optimizing surface area of tin cans were carried out in repeating steps. Table 1 below

shows those steps carried out for the first can, based on an equilateral triangle.

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Table 1. Explained sample calculations for optimizing surface area (SA) of a triangular prism with volume (V) about 442cm 3

Explanation of a step Performed calculations

1. Find or write down the expression for the The formula for area of an equilateral triangle is
area of base of a tin can (Abase), where a is known, hence:
the length of base edge of the prism. 𝑎2 √3
𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 =
4
2. Find the expression for surface area (SA): 𝐴𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 = 𝑎 × ℎ
Add 2 times Abase found in the previous
step, and n times the area of rectangular 𝑎2 √3
𝑆𝐴 = 2 × +3×𝑎×ℎ
face (Aface), where n is the number of 4
edges of base. h is the height of the prism.
𝑉 = 𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 × ℎ = 441.79
3. Using the known formula for volume of a 441.79
prism reduce the number of variables in ℎ=
𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒
expression for SA to express it with
respect to a. 𝑎2 √3 441.79

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𝑆𝐴(𝑎) = 2 × +3×𝑎× =
4 𝑎2 √3

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𝑎2 √3 5301.5
= +
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2 𝑎√3
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4. Find a derivative of SA(a) to further use 5301.5

𝑆𝐴′ (𝑎) = 𝑎√3 −
in optimization. 𝑎2 √3
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5. Find a for which SA’(a)=0 to find 5301.5

𝑆𝐴′ (𝑎) = 𝑎√3 − =0
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argument of a stationary point of SA(a). 𝑎2 √3

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5301.5
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𝑎√3 =
𝑎2 √3
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3𝑎3 = 5301.5
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3 5301.5
𝑎= √
3

𝑎 ≈ 12.1

6. Find the second derivative, SA’’(a) for 2 × 5301.5

𝑆𝐴′′ (𝑎) = √3 +
the second derivative test. 𝑎3 √3

7. Use the second derivative test to find the 2 × 5301.5

𝑆𝐴′′ (12.1) = √3 + ≈ 5.19 > 0
nature of the stationary point. 12.13 √3

Hence a minimum point at 𝑎 ≈ 12.1[𝑐𝑚]

8. Find the minimum SA of a tin can using 12.12 √3 5301.5

the base edge length found above. 𝑆𝐴(12.1) = + ≈ 422[𝑐𝑚2 ]
2 12.1√3

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The calculations followed the same scheme for all investigated prisms, but pentagonal and hexagonal

prims needed an additional step- finding the formula for Abase. I achieved that by using triangulation.

Triangulation in plane mathematics is the concept of dividing a polygon into set of triangles with

restriction that each triangle side is entirely shared by two adjacent triangles.5

Let’s consider a regular pentagon with side a.

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Figure 1. Scheme of a regular pentagon with side of length a.

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Table 2. Finding the expression for Abase of a a regular pentagonal prism with base edge length a. Based on Figure 1.
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Explanation of a step Performed calculations

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1. Find 𝜃. 360°
2𝜃 = = 72°
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72°
𝜃= = 36°
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2. Find the expression for H- height of one 1

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𝑎
of 10 right angle triangles constituting a 𝑡𝑎𝑛36° = 2
𝐻
regular pentagon with side a. 𝑎
𝐻=
2𝑡𝑎𝑛36°
3. Find the expression for the area of base
of a regular pentagonal prism with base 1 𝑎
𝑎× 5𝑎2
edge a- 10 times the area of a right 𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 = 10 × 2 2𝑡𝑎𝑛36° =
1 2 4𝑡𝑎𝑛36°
triangle with sides H and 𝑎.
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Finding the expression for Abase of a hexagonal prism:

6𝑎2 √3
A hexagon with side of length a consists of 6 equilateral triangles with side a, hence 𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 =
4

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Weisstein, E. W. (n.d.). Triangulation. Mathworld.wolfram.com. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Triangulation.html

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Due to repetitiveness of the rest of the calculations I am going to present the used formulas for A base and

SA, visual aids, and results for base edge length and minimum SA collectively in Table 3 below.

Table 3. Formulas used, schemes and results of optimization calculations for square, pentagonal and hexagonal regular
prisms with sides a.

Regular Found base edge

Formulas for Abase and SA(a) Scheme of a tin can
shape at length (a) [cm] and
found and used (source: author’s own work)
base minimum SA [cm2]
Triangle

𝑎2 √3
𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 = 𝑎 ≈ 12.1
4
𝑆𝐴(12.1) ≈ 422
𝑎2 √3 5301.5
𝑆𝐴(𝑎) = +
2 𝑎√3

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Rectangle
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𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 = 𝑎2
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𝑎 ≈ 7.62
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𝑆𝐴(𝑎) = 2𝑎2 + 𝑆𝐴(7.62) ≈ 348

𝑎
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Pentagon
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𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 = 𝑎 ≈ 5.71
4𝑡𝑎𝑛36°
5𝑎2 1767.2 𝑡𝑎𝑛36° 𝑆𝐴(5.71) ≈ 337
𝑆𝐴(𝑎) = +
2𝑡𝑎𝑛36° 𝑎

Hexagon

6𝑎2 √3
𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 = 𝑎 ≈ 4.61
4
1767.2 𝑆𝐴(4.61) ≈ 332
𝑆𝐴(𝑎) = 3𝑎2 √3 +
𝑎√3

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The obtained values were plotted in Graph 1 in an attempt to find a trend between increasing n (number

of base edges, 𝑛𝜖ℤ+ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛 > 2) and minimal surface area at a fixed volume. Judging from the graph,

there appears to be a decreasing trend in surface area that approaches a horizontal asymptote.

Graph 1. Found minimum SA against n for regular prisms

with fixed volume about 442cm3 6

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At this point of the work I wondered whether I would have to calculate
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surface areas of a decagon, or other polygons with inconveniently

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increasing numbers of sides. In an attempt of figuring out what formulas

for Abase I would have to use, I noticed, that when drawn, regular convex

polygons with increasing n tend to look more and more like a circle

(Figure 2). At the same time I wondered: how could something with

multiple vertices (more visually: spikes) become round? To answer

simply: it couldn’t, as even an infinite number of sides will always be

Figure 2. Scheme of regular
sides, which circles are known not to have. 7 polygons with increasing numbers
of sides 7

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Desmos | Graphing Calculator. (n.d.). Desmos. https://www.desmos.com/calculator?lang=eng
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Regular polygon. (2022, March 29). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_polygon

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At the same time I found the following the idea during literature research:

“The concept of infinitesimals arose as a way of speaking about limits. Recall the example in chapter 1

where we looked at a sequence of regular polygons starting with an equilateral triangle and a square

and proceeding upward through pentagons, hexagons, and other regular polygons having more and

more sides. We noticed that the more sides we considered and the shorter we made them, the more the

polygon began to look like a circle. We were tempted to say that a circle is an infinite polygon having

infinitesimal sides but bit our tongues because the notion seemed to lead to nonsense. We also found

that if we chose any point on the circumference of the circle and looked at it under a microscope, any

tiny arc containing that point looked straighter and straighter as the magnification increased. In the

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limit of infinite magnification, that tiny arc looks perfectly straight. In that sense, it really does seem

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helpful to think of the circle as an infinite collection of straight pieces and therefore as an infinite

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polygon with infinitesimal sides.” 8
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It appears that a cylinder is the shape that regular prisms reach in a limit as n (number of base edges)
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approaches infinity. Considering the trend shown in Graph 1, where minimum surface area of a prims
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decreases as n increases, a cylinder should have the smallest surface area of all prisms. For that matter I
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am going to explore the minimum surface area of a cylinder with fixed volume about 442cm3.
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Strogatz, S. (2019). Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe. In Google Books. Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt. https://books.google.pl

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Table 4. Explained calculations for optimizing surface area (SA) of a circular cylinder with volume (V) about 442cm 3

Performed calculations
Explanation of a step
1. Finding the expression for SA in terms of base 𝑉 = 𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 × ℎ = 441.79
radius (r).
441.79 441.79
ℎ= =
𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝜋𝑟 2

441.79
𝑆𝐴 = 2 × 𝜋𝑟 2 + 2 × 𝜋𝑟 × =
𝜋𝑟 2

883.58
= 2𝜋𝑟 2 +
𝑟

2. Making a derivative of SA(a). 883.58

𝑆𝐴′ (𝑟) = 4𝜋𝑟 −
𝑟2

3. Finding SA’(a)=0 to find a stationary point of 883.58

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𝑆𝐴′ (𝑟) = 4𝜋𝑟 − =0
SA(a). 𝑟2

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883.58
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4𝜋𝑟 =
𝑟2
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𝑟3 =
4𝜋
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3 883.58
𝑟=√
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4𝜋
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𝑟 ≈ 4.13
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4. Finding the second derivative, SA’’(a) 2 × 883.58

𝑆𝐴′′ (𝑟) = 4𝜋 +
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𝑟3
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5. Use the second derivative test to find the 2 × 883.58

nature of the stationary point. 𝑆𝐴′′ (4.13) = 4𝜋 + ≈ 37.7 > 0
4.133

Hence a minimum point at 𝑟 ≈ 4.13[𝑐𝑚]

6. Finding minimum SA 883.58

𝑆𝐴(4.13) = 2𝜋 × 4.132 + ≈ 321[𝑐𝑚2 ]
4.13

As predicted, a circular cylinder tin can has the lowest minimum surface area of all of the explored

prisms with V≈442cm3. At the same time it reveals that the equation of asymptote in Graph 1 is y=321.

What’s interesting, although the original can of cat food I measured at the beginning is already a circular

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cylinder, it appears not to have optimal dimensions, as the can I optimized has a slightly bigger radius

(4.13cm > 3.57cm).

Percentage space loss

Investigating the optimal side lengths of polygon based tin cans allows me to calculate the percentage

space loss between six cans when put in rectangular carton boxes. When preparing calculations I noticed,

that I don’t have to take height into consideration since:

𝑉𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝐴𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 × ℎ 𝐴𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡

%𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 = × 100% = × 100% = × 100%
𝑉𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 × ℎ 𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙

That allowed me to base these calculations on two dimensional, horizontal cross-sections of rectangular

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boxes with 6 cans inside. The diagrams I proposed depicts the approach that I intuitively found the most

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efficient.
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Cans with triangular bases

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12.1√3
𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 2 × 12.1 × 2 × ≈ 512[𝑐𝑚2 ]
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12.12 √3
𝐴𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 = 2 × ≈ 127[𝑐𝑚2 ]
a

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%𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 ≈ 24.8%

Figure 3. Scheme of 6 triangular cans in a rectangular box.

Gray areas show unfilled space. (author's own drawing)

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Cans with square bases

𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 2 × 7.62 × 3 × 7.62 ≈ 348[𝑐𝑚2 ]

𝐴𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 = 0[𝑐𝑚2 ]

%𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 0%

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Figure 4.Scheme of 6 square cans in a rectangular box.

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(author's own drawing)

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Cans with pentagonal bases
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Figure 5.Scheme of 6 pentagonal cans in a rectangular box. Gray areas show unfilled space. (author's own drawing)

𝑥 2 = 2 × 5.712 − 2 × 5.712 × 𝑐𝑜𝑠108° 𝑥 ≈ 9.24

𝑦 𝑦 ≈ 3.92
𝑡𝑎𝑛54° =
2.85
2.85 𝑧 ≈ 4.85
𝑐𝑜𝑠54° =
𝑧
2𝑢 = 2𝑥 − 2 × 5.71 𝑢 ≈ 3.53
𝑤 𝑤 ≈ 5.43
𝑡𝑎𝑛72° =
1
𝑢
2

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𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 2𝑥 × 2(𝑦 + 𝑧 + 𝑤) ≈ 525[𝑐𝑚2 ]

5×5.712
𝐴𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 = 525 − 6 × ≈ 188[𝑐𝑚2 ] %𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 ≈ 35.8%
4𝑡𝑎𝑛36°

Cans with hexagonal bases

4.61√3
𝑑 =2× = 4.61√3
2

𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 2.5 × 4.61√3 × 5 × 4.61 ≈ 460[𝑐𝑚2 ]

6 × 4.612 √3
𝐴𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 = 460 − 6 × ≈ 129[𝑐𝑚2 ]
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%𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 ≈ 28.0%

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Figure 6.Scheme of 6 hexagonal cans in a rectangular box.
Gray areas show unfilled space. (author's own drawing)
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Cylindrical cans
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𝐴𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = 6 × 4.13 × 4 × 4.13 ≈ 409[𝑐𝑚3 ]

𝐴𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 = 409 − 6 × 𝜋 × 4.132 ≈ 87.5[𝑐𝑚2 ]

%𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 ≈ 21.4%

Figure 7.Scheme of 6 circular cans in a rectangular box.

Gray areas show unfilled space. (author's own drawing)

Unlike minimal space area, there appeared to be no clear trend between the number of sides and

percentage space loss between 6 cans in a rectangular box. Nevertheless, it can be clearly stated that

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square based cans have the least percentage space loss, followed by circular, triangular, hexagonal and

pentagonal cans.

Conclusion

Concluding the investigation, there is no perfect shape of a can that would both have the minimal surface

area for a given volume and fill the most space in a rectangular box at the same time. Separately, the

criteria are met by a circular can and a square based can respectively. Strictly answering the question in

title “Can a can get more efficient?”, can of cat food my cats eat could be optimised to have lower

surface area by increasing the radius by about 0.4cm and decreasing height accordingly.

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Limitations and extensions

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A cylindrical shape of a can is the one most commonly used today, and turned out to be the most optimal
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for surface area. At the same time, a square based can showed minimal space loss during storage.
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Although all of the polygon based cans considered in this investigation are mathematically applicable,
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it must be noted that they probably would not be very useful. As good as the project might seem in a
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vacuum, placed in a real world context, where cans are handled and transported, exposed edges would
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create fragile points exposed to external damage more than flat sides. If a polygon based can fell on the
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floor, it would break when hitting its edge more likely than a circular can where impact would be
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distributed more evenly.

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Moreover, calculated surface areas of cans in this exploration do not represent the realistic amount of

metal used for production of such can. That is because nowadays cans tend to have multiple metal ribs

on their sides that provide additional structural support. Additionally, metal rims needed for sealing were

not taken into account. Nevertheless, the comparison is still accurate, as the amount of metal used would

change proportionally to surface area. It’s worth noticing that in this work I only considered two aspects

of efficiency: space loss and the amount of metal plate used (surface area). There surely are more

features that should be accounted for during can production, such as amount of leftover metal plate after

cutting out all of the necessary elements of a can.

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Downloaded from www.clastify.com by Hania Elgawsaky

An interesting extension to the investigation would be the inclusion of cans with irregular bases (such

as the ones fish often come in). It would probably require the use of integration rather than basic

trigonometry for determining area of base, which would add more fascinating mathematical areas.

Another aspect that could be reconsidered is the placement of cans in a rectangular box. In this work I

only took into account one possibility of packing for each can shape, which isn’t certain to be the most

efficient option available. Moreover, I chose the number of 6 cans in a box, as this is the standard amount

I encounter in real life. This doesn’t mean that there is no possibility for results to differ when the number

of cans in a box is altered, which is also worth investigating.

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Downloaded from www.clastify.com by Hania Elgawsaky

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ai
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