Weight of 12 fl oz Beer Bottle | Physics Project Help

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter sphoenixee
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Beer Weight
Click For Summary
SUMMARY

A standard 12 fl oz beer bottle typically weighs between 180g and 200g when empty. For a physics project, participants suggested practical methods to determine the weight, such as weighing full and empty bottles using a balance or a bathroom scale. A more accurate approach involves sampling various beer types, including US domestic, microbrews, and international options, to calculate an average weight. The discussion emphasized the importance of conducting experiments with a variety of beer bottles to achieve reliable results.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of basic physics principles, particularly balance and mass.
  • Familiarity with measuring tools such as scales and balances.
  • Knowledge of different beer types and their packaging.
  • Basic experimental design for sampling and averaging data.
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the density of various beers to improve weight estimation accuracy.
  • Learn about the physics of balance and mass measurement techniques.
  • Explore methods for conducting sampling experiments in physics projects.
  • Investigate the impact of bottle design on weight and material properties.
USEFUL FOR

This discussion is beneficial for physics students, educators conducting experiments, and anyone interested in the physical properties of beverage containers.

sphoenixee
Messages
31
Reaction score
0
Random question: How much does a regular beer bottle (12 fl oz) weigh?

I'm doing a physics project involving the weight of beer bottles, and I don't have a scale, balance, etc. :rolleyes:
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Beer bottles are not uniform in weight, so you may have to generalize. The best bet is to buy a couple of cases of Beck's Dark, drink them all, load the bottles onto a bathroom scale and ask someone to divide that weight by 24, because you probably won't be able to do so.
 
It weighs 12 fl. oz... plus the glass.
 
Danger said:
It weighs 12 fl. oz... plus the glass.
Dammit, Danger! How can I steal your badge when you're stalking me like this?

P.S. You notice that I didn't recommend that he research the problem using Labatt's or Molsen - horse-p*ss only slightly less revolting than US domestic bottled dishwater.
 
turbo-1 said:
The best bet is to buy a couple of cases of Beck's Dark, drink them all...

Hero...! :smile:
 
turbo-1 said:
How can I steal your badge when you're stalking me like this?
Don't look at me like that; I thought that your post was funnier. Anyhow, I'm not in the running this year, so you'll be stealing someone else's. :-p

And I drink Keith's. :-p :-p
 
Danger said:
And I drink Keith's.


Uhh, you drink Keith's what?
 
And another one rears up out of the bog... :rolleyes:

Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale.
 
sphoenixee said:
Random question: How much does a regular beer bottle (12 fl oz) weigh?

I'm doing a physics project involving the weight of beer bottles, and I don't have a scale, balance, etc. :rolleyes:

If you don't have to be super accurate just take a bottle down to a grocery store produce department and weigh it. You could even ask a pharmacist to weigh it.

If you live on the wrong side of town, go to a stash house and ask a friendly drug dealer to weigh it.:cool:
 
  • #10
If you'll be drinking them, I recommend Yeungling Lager. If you won't be drinking them (ie, you'll just be pouring them out before weighing them), any of the suggestions above will do fine.
 
Last edited:
  • #11
Spoken like a true Pennsylvanian, eh!
 
  • #12
sphoenixee said:
Random question: How much does a regular beer bottle (12 fl oz) weigh?

I'm doing a physics project involving the weight of beer bottles, and I don't have a scale, balance, etc. :rolleyes:
Here's how you find out. Get two bottles of (budweiser/miller/coors) light beer (to approximate the density of the beer to that of water). Carefully empty one of the bottles into your sink (making sure you don't accidentally spill any drops into your mouth). Suspend the two bottles (one empty, one full) from the ends of a meter stick. find the balance point and from that, the ratio of the two masses. Plug in the mass of 12 oz of water, and you have the mass of the bottle.

PS: A typical 12oz glass bottle weighs between 180g and 200g.
 
Last edited:
  • #13
The only proper approach, of course, would be to weigh yourself holding the full bottle, then drink the beer and weigh yourself holding the empty bottle.
Hang on a sec... there's something wrong with that.
 
  • #14
Danger said:
The only proper approach, of course, would be to weigh yourself holding the full bottle, then drink the beer and weigh yourself holding the empty bottle.
Hang on a sec... there's something wrong with that.

Yep, forgot to tell him to pee first. :approve:

Or...he could find a mentor who is over 21, has a 12 oz bottle of beer in the fridge, and a kitchen scale willing to weigh it.

I'm tempted to hold out for the chocolate bribe, but since my kitchen scale is only accurate to within 25 g, I guess I should just suggest a donation after the fact.

It was between 325 and 350 g. (That would be Edmund Fitzgerald Porter from Great Lakes Brewing Co.; I highly recommend it. :approve:)
 
  • #15
Moonbear said:
Yep, forgot to tell him to pee first.

That would be counter-productive; it would give a negative value. Beer is the only substance on the planet that is known to violate the laws of thermodynamics... 5 go in, 6 come out.
 
  • #16
Danger said:
That would be counter-productive; it would give a negative value. Beer is the only substance on the planet that is known to violate the laws of thermodynamics... 5 go in, 6 come out.
... and 4 stay permanently attached to your gut!
 
  • #17
my approach to get a truly representaive average mass of a beer bottle would be to conduct a sampling of the population of all possialbe beer bottles my sample would try to include something like :

2 us domestic beers
2 us micro brews
2 european brews
2 asian brews

mass all bottles full... drink... then mass all bottles empty and divide by eight... this should give a good estimate of the mean beer bottle mass... fun experiment though
 
  • #18
josh_einsle said:
my approach to get a truly representaive average mass of a beer bottle would be to conduct a sampling of the population of all possialbe beer bottles my sample would try to include something like :

2 us domestic beers
2 us micro brews
2 european brews
2 asian brews

mass all bottles full... drink... then mass all bottles empty and divide by eight... this should give a good estimate of the mean beer bottle mass... fun experiment though

You forgot to mention you have to do this once in the US or Europe and once in Australia. That way you can determine whether the room spins in the same direction in both hemispheres, as well as gather more samples.
 
  • #19
russ_watters said:
... and 4 stay permanently attached to your gut!

Yeah, I forgot about that part. Wasn't a problem until I hit 40 or so, then 'poof'... a rack full of obsolete belts.
 
  • #20
Danger said:
Yeah, I forgot about that part. Wasn't a problem until I hit 40 or so, then 'poof'... a rack full of obsolete belts.
Well, then you need to drink fewer bottles of beer per day. If you come to Maine, we'll go to the local micro-brewery and pick up four growlers of great Oak Pond Brewery ales. http://oakpondbrewery.com/
The growlers are 1/2 gallon each, but with this method we can probably get you cut back to only two bottles a day.
 
  • #21
Well, I do probably at least 6 beers a day, sometimes up to 16 or so... so I guess that sounds about right. The only problem would be keeping a bottle cold long enough to drink it. :frown:
 

Similar threads

High School How can I control the amount of air vs water in an inverted bottle dispenser?
  • · Replies 11 ·
Replies
11
Views
7K
High School How does the density of air affect the note you hear?
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
2K
Vanishing Pencil: Math/Physics Mystery from High School Teacher
  • · Replies 16 ·
Replies
16
Views
3K
Beer related physics, for a undergraduate project
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
High School Good physics research project for high schooler?
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
3K
Ionic thruster high school science project
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
851
Undergrad How to measure mass for an object of changing mass?
  • · Replies 11 ·
Replies
11
Views
3K
High school project -- Finding mass flow rate, air velocity
  • · Replies 18 ·
Replies
18
Views
4K
High School What is the basic science behind fire?
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
1K
High School How does the weight on a scale change when an object is submerged in water?
  • · Replies 35 ·
2
Replies
35
Views
4K