Final answer:
Compressing a gas in a sealed container increases the pressure inside, which can lead to the container bursting if the pressure becomes too great. Conversely, cooling a gas decreases its pressure, which could result in the container being crushed by atmospheric pressure.
Step-by-step explanation:
When a student pushes on both plungers, attempting to compress the contents of sealed containers, two scenarios can occur. For a container with a gas, such as isobutane, the pressure inside the container will increase due to the compression of the gas. If this process continues, the pressure may become great enough to burst the container due to the physical principle that an increase in the amount of gas molecules in a given volume results in more collisions with the container walls, thus increasing the pressure.
In another scenario, for a sealed container with a gas at a lower temperature, the external atmospheric pressure could potentially crush the container if the internal pressure is significantly reduced. This is seen when a hot gas cools and the resulting lower gas pressure inside the container leads to imbalance with the higher atmospheric pressure outside, which can cause the container to collapse.