Final answer:
The bottle might be hard to open due to thermal contraction of the air inside or outgassing of the material, creating a vacuum or increasing the pressure, respectively. This is related to how temperature affects the volume and pressure inside a sealed container, similar to how glass bottles of vinegar or carbonated beverages may break or lose fizz.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is indeed possible that a vacuum might be causing increased tightness when you try to open a closed bottle with no liquid inside after a day. This phenomenon can often be explained by the principle of thermal contraction which is a physical property of materials (including air) to decrease in volume when the temperature drops. If the air inside the bottle is at room temperature when sealed and subsequently cools down (say, overnight), the air inside contracts. This causes a decrease in pressure inside the bottle compared to the outside atmospheric pressure, effectively creating a vacuum that makes the bottle harder to open.
Additionally, another reason for this occurrence could be the outgassing of materials. Some plastics and rubbers have the tendency to release small amounts of gas over time, which can increase the pressure inside a sealed container, making it harder to open as well.
Similar Physics Phenomena
- When a glass bottle full of vinegar is capped tightly and warms up, the vinegar, expanding more than the glass, can break the bottle if there is no air pocket to accommodate the expanding volume.
- Avoiding going "flat": For carbonated beverages, like sparkling water, leaving the bottle open allows the CO₂ to escape, eventually causing the drink to lose its fizz as the pressure equilibrium with the atmosphere is disturbed.
- Using hot water to loosen a tight metal lid on a glass jar is another example, where the heat causes the metal lid to expand slightly more than the glass, making it easier to open.