9 HN users recommended this explainer9 months2016–2026score 11.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
It is a go-to recommendation whenever cans, good design or mass-produced objects come up, and many also recommend the whole channel.
Bill Hammack of Engineer Guy explains the engineering behind the aluminum beverage can: why it is cylindrical, how it is manufactured, why it narrows at the top, the double seam, and how the pull tab works.
“Whenever it’s about cans I can only recommend this video from the engineer guy” (HN, 2025)
Wow. That was an awesome video. Thank you. I didn't know why the top had a neck. Further efficiency apparently. He has an excellent explanation of the two-mode pull tab towards the end. Direct link: [this video]
While we are at it, the Engineering Guy has a really good youtube channel. His videos are not very frequent most of them does a great job explaining how mundane objects are designed and manufactured. I thought I was familiar with some of his subjects but I always end up learning something new after watching. Personal favourites: Aluminium cans: [this video] Wind-up music box: [link] Nerf guns: [link]
Engineering Guy explains design and manufacture of mundane objects
Engineer Guy (Bill Hammack) has a great video about this. [this video] Edit: Just realized this is the same video you referenced. All of his work is fantastic.
Design of the aluminum beverage can [this video] For everyone else, thanks for sharing! Normally i think sharing videos is bad mojo--the Internet is so personalized that favorites are difficult to share. But I really enjoyed most of what has been shared so far!
Nice video on the design and manufacturing of aluminum drinks cans here: [this video] The whole thing is pretty ingenious, but the way the internal pressure helps vent the can while the tab is acting as a second class lever, then as soon as it’s vented becomes a first class lever to push the scored section of the top into the can — that’s great engineering.
Design and manufacturing of drink cans, tab as lever
In a similar vein, I found this explanation [0] of how and why a soda can's tab functions the way it does to be fascinating. Very clever and elegant solution to the problem of opening a can under pressure. 0: [this video]
It feels pretty disingenuous to write off all real world design as trivial or impossible to make an impression. For instance, aluminum cans are a great example of quality design [this video]
The site looks great and good job on shipping it out! I probably don't fit as your target customer, so please take my feedback with a grain of salt. After digging around your site for a bit, it seems like your "special sauce" is to bring incredibly powerful search features for multiple data types/sources all from a single authoritative place (Shelf.io) Based on your YouTube videos, I really like the ability to parse rich data on the internet and input it for my team to see. Seems like a great product marketing/engineering folks during the high level brainstorming phase. Use case: 1.Software Engineer: Reads a cool article on Medium about some software technique and wants their team to consider it for their their new beta project. 2.Marketing person: Gets inspired by a video/image for a new ad campaign that they are designing and wants to share it with their team. Also as an end user, I really like being able to see your actual product and how it works without needing to signup or give out my information. If the product seems like it can solve my pain point within 45 seconds of an intro video and 5 mins of playing with a demo site, then I'll commit to a email signup. Basecamp's "How it works" tab does a great job of this. On the flip side, I feel that Salesforce doesn't need to do this, since they already have market share and a great reputation for their products. I would take your "Intro to Shelf" YouTube video, cut the first 25 seconds out and embed it somewhere convenient o
Bill Hammond, the Engineer Guy on youtube, has a video on the design and engineering of the aluminum can with a brief clip of someone standing on a can (around the 7-8 minute mark). [this video]
It's represented everywhere that efficiency counts. I haven't fact-checked it, but one source[0] claims that refinements in the design of soda cans (thinner walls, different shapes) since 1960 saves "at least 90 million kilograms of aluminum annually." [0] [this video]
The complexity of a can isn't as extreme as a disposable ARM chip, but it is still quite a sophisticated mass produced object. [this video] Many daily life, single use objects have a lot of thoughts put into them: [link]
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed
13 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.
Citations, criticism and jokes
Read more