# frozen humans shattering **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 5, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781 "2010-02-05T04:39:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Igor70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bc79bd/32.png) [@Igor70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Igor70)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/41 "2010-02-22T18:22:55Z")
In Terminator 2, the bad cyborg (the non-Arnold) was frozen by liquid nitrogen and shattered. It then reconstituted itself, but still . . . What more proof could you want? ---
**Author:** ![Lestrade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Lestrade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lestrade)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/42 "2010-02-23T14:07:23Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > It’s not even a valid nitpick since a model where cold is the absence of heat is perfectly functional. There is no reason not to say that cold is conducted. It makes perfect sense. > > You could probably come up with a similar model for light, but I can’t think of how it would work. Yep, light bulbs as [dark suckers](http://www.ethereal.net/~tristan/humor/dark-suckers.html) is a pretty old bit of anonymous lore. ---
**Author:** ![Recliner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a88e57/32.png) [@Recliner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recliner)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/43 "2010-03-01T21:00:35Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > This struck me about the column, too. I haven’t priced LN lately, but when I used it in grad school it was cheaper, liter for liter, than Coke. Expensive it wasn’t, and I can’t imagine how that could have changed. > I figure it was just a snappy way to end the column. When I used liquid nitrogen (me, no, the teach) in 8th grade, I was told that it was cheap – but you needed a Dewar’s flask, which would run you about $100. This was in 1994 or so. Being a destructive pre-teen, I made a permanent mental note of this: cheap, but need a hundred for the flask. FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/44 "2010-03-03T15:49:44Z")
It may be cheap, but that reflects the exploitative conditions that the workers in the nitrogen mines have to endure. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/45 "2010-03-03T21:18:05Z")
> [@Igor70](#): > > In Terminator 2, the bad cyborg (the non-Arnold) was frozen by liquid nitrogen and shattered. It then reconstituted itself, but still . . . What more proof could you want? In Timecop, the bad guy was sprayed with liquid nitrogen in the arm and shoulder, and then Jean-Claude shattered his shoulder into shards while the guy was still yelling and walking. Anyone tried taking a hammer to a frozen roast? Whether you want to nitpick about “conducting cold”, basically my assertion stands - when the temperature differential is on the order of 10C vs 150C, it can take a significant fraction of an hour for the interior of a large chunk of meat to get to the higher temperature. Is there any reason to think the heat conduction time of meat is much less - on the order of seconds - for a temperature differential of 38C vs. -200C. This does not count the time required for freezing (heat of fusion) but I will concede that it is likely that immersion in a liquid (LN2) will conduct heat more rapidly than hot air. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/46 "2010-03-03T21:55:04Z")
Didn’t Mythbuster’s do this recently? I recall them freezing a pig’s head in liquid nitrogen, and having it smoosh rather than smash. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/47 "2010-03-03T22:14:48Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Didn’t Mythbuster’s do this recently? I recall them freezing a pig’s head in liquid nitrogen, and having it smoosh rather than smash. From the column we’re discussing here: > [@](#): > > The folks on the \*Mythbusters \*TV series did a show not long ago in which they filled a human skull with ballistic gel, then deep-froze it; they were able to break chunks off later (yes, it was gross), but the skull wouldn’t shatter. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/48 "2010-03-03T22:43:55Z")
The column describes a ballistics gel experiment. The one I saw used an entire pig’s head as a better analogue. ---
**Author:** ![KNO3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea5d25/32.png) [@KNO3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KNO3)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/49 "2010-03-04T02:46:06Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > The column describes a ballistics gel experiment. The one I saw used an entire pig’s head as a better analogue. What episode was this? And how long was the head frozen for? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/50 "2010-03-04T21:48:02Z")
Same episode, again it was similar time frame. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/51 "2010-03-05T02:23:01Z")
[Fried ice cream - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_ice_cream) - How slowly cold conducts (or how slowly heat conducts). If you can fry something and the heat doesn’t melt the interior, it will probably be a long time before you freeze the interior of a body immersed in liquid nitrogen. ---
**Author:** ![KNO3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea5d25/32.png) [@KNO3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KNO3)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/52 "2010-03-05T05:02:05Z")
Well, the YouTube video link I posted showed bacon being frozen in liquid nitrogen shattering as well as liquid nitrogen frozen bug thrown to the ground shattering. Both were thoroughly frozen. Dunno how resilient human skin frozen in liquid nitrogen is to being shattered. The human got to be soaked overnight in liquid nitrogen in order to have a chance of being shattered. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/53 "2010-03-05T06:43:44Z")
One of the professors here once accidentally swallowed a little liquid nitrogen, and suffered no ill effects aside from a lot of belching. It’s still not something to try at home, of course, in case you swallow a bit more than he did, or have a more fragile stomach, or so on. ---
**Author:** ![KNO3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea5d25/32.png) [@KNO3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KNO3)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781/54 "2010-03-05T22:36:17Z")
Oh hey, I just got this. Aschwin de Wolf one of the Alcor guys sent me this article on cryopreservation and fracturing. [http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/CryopreservationAndFracturing.html](http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/CryopreservationAndFracturing.html) Looks like humans can probably shatter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frozen-humans-shattering/527781.md?page=2)