Fun with Liquid Nitrogen

[SouprChckn]

Next week, we're getting liquid nitrogen to "work" with in my AP Chem class. We're going to have to do a lab but once that's over, we're probably going to have some fun with what's left. Does anyone know of any cool things you can do with liquid nitrogen that isn't the obvious stuff. (i.e. I know liquid nitrogen is cold and I can freeze stuff and smash it to pieces). And while smashing was fun last year, I would like to see something spectacular. So any ideas that doesn't involve me drinking this stuff would be interesting.

[Fear Itself]

Well. let's see; here a recipe for Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream (http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/Henry/Icecream/Icecream.html), or how about an LN2 powered Food Launcher (http://www.tiac.net/users/reilly/nitro-launch.html). Maybe you could build an LN2 Aurora Borealis Simulator (http://www.allanstime.com/UnifiedFieldTheory/Aurora/). Oh heck, just go to 1001 things to do with Liquid Nitrogen (http://www.physik.uni-augsburg.de/~ubws/nitrogen.html) and go nuts!

[Satan]

Originally posted by SouprChckn

So any ideas that doesn't involve me drinking this stuff would be interesting.
Spoil all the fun. Damn...
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David B used me as a cite!

[SouprChckn]

I was really expecting about 1001 or at least a hundred. Talk about false advertising. Ah well, at least that shaving cream trick sounds good. Others do as well but I doubt I can fit in so much destruction into one day. Now I just have to get a hold of some liquid nitrogen in a non-school atmosphere to do the better ones (i.e. the dangerous ones).

[Reboot42]

Will LN2 freeze honey? I've tried freezing it in all sorts of normal freezers but at the most the stuff becomes a real thick, plastic-like liquid. Nothing conventional seems to freeze the stuff to the hardness of water ice.

[USCDiver]

In AP physics back in the day, we watched vidoes of this crazy guy (can't remember his name) who did stuff like bust a cinder block on his chest while on a bed of nails. He also put a drop of LN2 on his tongue and froze his breath to demonstrate (i think) the Lyden(sp) frost effect. This isn't really drinking the stuff so, I guess it counts as a suggestion.

[3waygeek]

Things I used to do with LN2:

1) Quick-frozen Snickers.
2) Pour it out on a non-carpeted floor -- it picks up dust pretty well, and you'll see dirty little balls skittering across the floor.
3) Nitrogen bombs -- take a plastic soda bottle, put a bit of LN into it, seal it up. Then drop something heavy on it, like a lead or cinder block. Thin plastic milk bottles would probably explode on their own without persuasion.
4) Dip your hand/arm into it -- don't leave it there too long, and take off any rings/bracelets/watches before doing it.
5) Freeze a banana -- it makes a reasonably decent hammer.

BTW, LN2 is quite cheap -- something like 5 to 10 cents per liter in quantity. Back when I was in college, I could get small quantities for the asking.

[Zor]

You can also just pour some on your hand. It won't hurt at all because the Leidenfrost effect (i.e. LN2 boiling off forming a protective layer of gas that keep the rest of the liquid afloat on your hand). Start off with smaller drops if you're affraid. That'll show your friends you're the real physics nut ;) Oh, have you ever poured soft drinks into LN2? You can make Coke on a stick with it. Just pour it slowly down the LN2 along a stick on your first try. You can get some pretty nifty shapes if you're good at it...

[peace]

It's great for cooling beer on a hot day.

[Chronos]

USCDiver, I saw a set of similar demonstrations in person a couple of weeks back, including the liquid nitrogen on the tongue and the cinder block/bed of nails. According to the professor doing it, one of his assosciates once did accidentally drink a small amount, and the only ill effect was that he was burping for the rest of the day.

The hand thing works best if you've just finished demonstrating the shattered rubber bands, etc. Of course, those were all left in for longer.

[(Tim)]

3) Nitrogen bombs -- take a plastic soda bottle, put a bit of LN into it, seal it up. Then drop something heavy on it, like a lead or cinder block. Thin plastic milk bottles would probably explode on their own without persuasion.I assure you that standard 2L pop bottles will explode on their own. They'll be louder that way (more pressure builds up) and would probably be safer than throwing things at it.

[3waygeek]

(Tim) wrote:I assure you that standard 2L pop bottles will explode on their own. They'll be louder that way (more pressure builds up) and would probably be safer than throwing things at it.
You're obviously a master of the nitrogen bomb -- in 4+ years of trying, I never got one to explode spontaneously. I stand in awe of your superior skills.

[funneefarmer]

Frozen bull semen.
Well that's what we use it for. The tough part is getting the semen from the bull. You haven't experienced fun until you've watched a professional try to get a bull to masturbate. After seeing that up close when I was younger I knew that that wasn't what I wanted to specialize in.

[Yue Han]

This belongs in IMHO.

Anyway, fun with liquid nitrogen:

Stand on a chair and pour it on the ground. (THe excess, when you're done.

Put an egg in it. Wait. Wait longer. Smash the white. Play hot potato with the skin bitingly cold yolk.

--John

[MikeG]

vodka icecubes mmmm...

[kferr]

I saw one on "Beakman's World" several years ago. Fill a large plastic garbage can with water. Fill a 2L plastic soda bottle with liquid nitrogen, put the top on tightly, and drop it in the garbage can. When it exploded, virtually all the water in the can shot about 10 feet in the air.

[Andy]

The simple ones are the best. At the end of the day, I usually have about half a litre of liquid nitrogen left which needs to be disposed of. Pick a victim and hurl it at them. It's just hilarious to watch the surprise on their faces.

[matt]

This might seem obvious, but DON'T do the nitrogen bomb trick with glass bottles, and don't play catch with a plastic bottle nitrogen bomb unless you can spare a few fingers.

[madd1]

Originally posted by peace
It's great for cooling beer on a hot day.

True. However, use only one cup when pouring over an upended case of warm beer. Two cups froze all 24 cans to instant slush. I must admit, a beer slushy is realy good (when you're already drunk).

P.S. Drinking and Liquid Nitrogen don't mix.

[SouprChckn]

Well, the liquid nitrogen lab is tomorrow. I plan on doing some crazy things but I don't know what I will be able to pull off before my teacher goes nuts. So no exploding anything I'm afraid.

This thing where you pour it into your hand and because it creates a gas layer that shields you, your hand doesn't freeze. In theory this should work but there seems to be a lot more people telling me that liquid nitrogen will probably cause freeze burns than show how cool you are by seemingly withstanding the effects of the cold. I'll check w/ my teacher but if she doesn't know what the deal is, I might have to play it safe. Ah well, I'll tell you what happens tomorrow.

[LifeWillFall]

I went to this lecture at Cal Tech back during my own AP chem class, anyway one of the speakers did the hand thing and it worked perfectly, well acctually the assistant did it. No freezer burns or anything, just make sure you pour and not dip

Have Fun

[Rich G7subs]

We used The stuff to freeze seal pipes.Great fun to dip a racquet ball in it,bounce it and watch it shatter like a lightbulb.

[Jamoross]

You don't really want to know about some of the things I've
done with LN2. Well, maybe you do but I would be guilty of
corrupting the Teeming Millions if I told you.

About the most fun and unexpected "trick" was similar to
many of the suggestions here about letting it spread on
the floor and dance around. In the case I have in mind,
"dance" was more literal.

One day when we were playing with some Tygon and LN2,
the lunchroom got invaded by ants. We noticed when we
spilled some nitrogen on the concrete floor and the
skittering droplets intersected the trail of insects.
You would think that the little critters might get frozen
and die and you'd be right, but we didn't expect them to
absorb the stuff and start popping and spinning wildly
like a troupe of little break-dancers!

Much better than bug spray: instant results and no messy
residue. Subsequent applications of our new exterminator
technology were of course accompanied by appropriate music.

- jam

[Fiver]

I read an account once (I'm pretty sure it was on the Web) of a graduate student who drank a mouthful of liquid nitrogen, believing it to be harmless.

It put him in a coma for days, and he suffered severe trauma to his esophagus, trachea, sinus cavity and lungs.

(This is all as I remember it; I just did a quick Web search and was unable to find the story again.)

Apparently, while it's safe to hold as much as a mouthful of liquid N2 in, well, your mouth, you do NOT want to swallow.

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

Do your required experiments include working with magnets or electricity? Some (all?) metals become superconductors when
superchilled. Similarly, magnets become superstrong when immersed in liquified gases. I think nitrogen would be cold enough. I think you could put some liquid N into a beaker on the lab table, and drop a small ordinary magnet into said beaker. I think a refrigerator magnet would do. Then, try sticking heavy metal objects to the underside of the table. You could try a heavy wrench, for example. Tie a string to the wrench and tie the other end to a leg of the table, and see if the magnet can hold the magnet up in mid-air. Or get some iron filings and see how much better the patterns of force can be seen around the magnet.

[Saltire]

We messed with LN2 in a college thermodynamics class. The only thing I can think of that hasn't been suggested is paramagnetism. This memory was of course inspired by javaman.

While liquid nitrogen is not cold enough to cause superconductivity (except in those cool high-temp ceramics), it is cold enough to convert certain non-magnetic metals into magnetic ones. I can't recall which ones they are (boron? beryllium?), but you should be able to look up paramagnetism for the proper info.

These metals won't stick to a magnet at room temp, but will when chilled by the nitrogen. Hang a magnet by a string and dangle it near the chilled metal. Get it only close enough to make the string hang at an angle. Leave it there for a minute or so, and watch how the magnet slowly moves away from the metal as it warms up.

Well, it ain't explosive, but it's interesting. Educational, even.

[Zor]

The Leidenfrost effect is real SouprChckn. I can't take legal responsibility of course, but I've tried it with nothing bad happening. I once had a corn removed from my finger with LN2. The doctor dipped a Q-tip into LN2 and had to press down real hard to make it work. It took several applications of that before the top layer of my skin died, and even then it didn't hurt much (about as much as pulling of a bandaid with your body hair). Like I said, start with a small drop if you're afraid. Do it in the back of the classroom so you can avoid the embarrassment :p

[SouprChckn]

Well I was ready to try and test the Leidenfrost effect for myself but my teacher wouldn't give it to me once she realized that I was going to possibly inflict bodily harm to myself. I guess I'll have to try it out on my own time but I managed to try a few other things. Freaking people out with my nitrogen breath. Putting stuff in the LN2 and smashing it. At one point, she was filling up our container w/ more LN2 and the cup got so cold it busted open at the bottom and started spilling everywhere. There wasn't enough to cause a disaster but it sure was cool to see it boil before it hit the ground.