How Did This Guy Not Freeze His Hand Off in a Jar of Liquid Nitrogen? [Science]

File this under don’t try at home, but there is a safe and painless technique to dip your hand into liquid nitrogen. The secret? The Leidenfrost effect, which briefly shields your hand from -320° temps with a layer of bubbles.

PopSci’s extremely brave Theodore Gray trusts in science and tests the phenomenon along with his own mitt, coming out unscathed. Along with his hand inside the frigid vat for a split second, Gray says he ” barely felt the cold at all.” The primary that kept him from losing his hand is similar one you see when water droplets fall onto a scalding hot skillet-in preference to evaporating immediately, they bounce around on a thin layer of steam. And if you stick your hand into the sub-zero nitrogen-boom-another instant layer of protective gas. Just you’ll want to pull yourself out as quickly as you went in, because those bubbles don’t last long, and frostbite isn’t any fun.

Gray says the Leidenfrost effect (named after German doctor Johann Gottlob Leidenfrost) should, in theory, protect your hand from a vat of molten lead. But, yeah, we’re unlikely guilty him for passing on that experiment. [ PopSci ]

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This post is tagged: DID, freeze, liquid, NOT, OFF, Science