an open steel can of volume 216 L is filled to the top with gasoline at 13.5 C. when it warms to 36.0 C, how much gas spills over? (don't forget, both the can and the gasoline are expanding.)

You need the thermal expansion coefficients for both steel and gasoline, Several sources give different values for steel and it varies with type of steel, but 12 x 10^(-6)/K seems a representative linear thermal expansion coefficient. Volumetric thermal expansion will be 3X this.

Another poster found the value 950 x 10^(-6)/K for gasoline as a volumetric expansion coefficient (don’t multiply it by three). API uses a more complex equation that depends on the density of the gasoline (which varies) at a reference temperature.

The relative volumetric expansion coefficient is (950 - 36)x10^(-6)/K

216 L x 22.5 K x 914 x 10^(-6)/K = 4.44 L

This is the amount that will overflow because the gasoline expands faster than the steel can.

This may vary slightly depending on grade of steel, density of gasoline, and use of API formulas for expansion of petroleum products, but should be in the ballpark.

Containers should generally have a headspace of about 5% (or more) at reference temperature to allow for thermal expansion. Gasoline should probably have more head space as it has quite a high coefficient of expansion

Explanation: