Engineering
Buckling Analysis of Thin-Walled Cylindrical Shells
Quick fact
The classical elastic buckling stress for an axially compressed perfect thin-walled cylinder is given by σcl = E t / (R √(3(1-ν²))), which is astonishingly low—for a typical soda can, it's only about 15 MPa, but real cans fail at even lower loads because tiny dents drastically reduce the strength.
Why this is interesting
You've probably held a soda can and squeezed it gently until it crumpled. That sudden, dramatic collapse is more than a nuisance—it's a fundamental engineering challenge that has puzzled analysis for over a century.