Cold
I am sitting on my couch watching a gentleman make ice-cream by pouring 77K liquid nitrogen into cream, sugar, and milk. Wow, fun. Good television.
Do you remember that demonstration in college (or on science television) where the someone takes a rose and dips it in liquid nitrogen and then picks it out and shatters it? Remember the balloon that shrinks to near nothingness as it disappears into the smoke vat? Liquid nitrogen is fun in a scary "don'’t touch that"” sort of way. (Ever have a wart burned off by a doctor?) Seventy-seven Kelvin (-320 °F) is very, very cold: so cold that one is wise to take safety precautions when handling it.
One of the more memorable things I have from college was fooling around with LN2. The professor finished a few amazing feats with liquid nitrogen. After the demonstration the prof. encouraged me to dip my hands in the vat holding the liquid&em;—the same nitrogen had just finished rendering the structure of a rose into bits and pieces all over the table. I did (imagining myself with an "icicle hand" on the way to the local emergency room).
The wikipedia notes the following:
• Liquid nitrogen is produced industrially in large quantities by distillation from liquid air . . . a cryogenic (extremely cold) fluid which can cause instant frostbite on direct contact with living tissue.
Yet nothing bad happened. Compared to the liquid nitrogen my hand is quite hot! and the surrounding nitrogen vaporized, shielding my hand from the cold boil for the [very] short time I immersed it. I do not think I will attempt that trick again. Sometimes I wonder how long one could immerse a hand in the stuff before something amazingly unfortunate happens. Next time I will use the tongs.
Song: Popsicle toes (lyrics)
Do you remember that demonstration in college (or on science television) where the someone takes a rose and dips it in liquid nitrogen and then picks it out and shatters it? Remember the balloon that shrinks to near nothingness as it disappears into the smoke vat? Liquid nitrogen is fun in a scary "don'’t touch that"” sort of way. (Ever have a wart burned off by a doctor?) Seventy-seven Kelvin (-320 °F) is very, very cold: so cold that one is wise to take safety precautions when handling it.
One of the more memorable things I have from college was fooling around with LN2. The professor finished a few amazing feats with liquid nitrogen. After the demonstration the prof. encouraged me to dip my hands in the vat holding the liquid&em;—the same nitrogen had just finished rendering the structure of a rose into bits and pieces all over the table. I did (imagining myself with an "icicle hand" on the way to the local emergency room).
The wikipedia notes the following:
• Liquid nitrogen is produced industrially in large quantities by distillation from liquid air . . . a cryogenic (extremely cold) fluid which can cause instant frostbite on direct contact with living tissue.
Yet nothing bad happened. Compared to the liquid nitrogen my hand is quite hot! and the surrounding nitrogen vaporized, shielding my hand from the cold boil for the [very] short time I immersed it. I do not think I will attempt that trick again. Sometimes I wonder how long one could immerse a hand in the stuff before something amazingly unfortunate happens. Next time I will use the tongs.
Song: Popsicle toes (lyrics)
posted by B. | 8:34 PM
1 Comments:
Popsicle Toes! I love that song!
In the Navy some jet engine mechanics work with Liquid Oxygen (which boils at 90K and freezes at 54K). They wear special "LOX boots" which have no laces. Just an elastic band sewn into the upper, near the ankle. That way, if there is a spill, and their boots are frozen to the deck plates, they can get away safely, since they can simply slip out of the frozen boot...
...but I've always wondered what they do after that first step???!??!?!??!!!
Brrrrrrrrr!!!!!
~ cob
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