# Seeing Your Breath and Smoke Rings--Dopers, or Even Cecil **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 14, 2015, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692 "2015-04-14T22:39:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2015, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692/1 "2015-04-14T22:39:46Z")
In my youth, waiting for the school bus in a Wisconsin Winter, all the local kids would “see their breath”–see the condensation, caused by moisture & low temperatures. Since smoking was not stigmatized back then, we often tried, with all our might, to use our breath to “blow smoke rings” using our quite visible breath (but no tobacco). None of us ever did. ☹ Why not? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692/2 "2015-04-15T01:45:25Z")
Wow. Three hours +, & not so much as a nibble nor a snark. Have I stumped the SDMB? Oh, Mighty **Cecil Adams**! Will you answer? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692/3 "2015-04-15T01:54:08Z")
I’m going to guess that it has something to do with the particulates in smoke, but I ain’t no scientifical type. Or maybe you just weren’t holding your mouth right. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692/4 "2015-04-15T01:58:33Z")
[Here](http://www.wikihow.com/Blow-Smoke-Rings) is the WikiHow. Basically, you take the smoke into your throat and push it out in small amounts in a particular manner. Thus it is the smoke itself that is being manipulated. This is not the case with your breath’s condensation in cold air. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2015, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692/5 "2015-04-15T02:32:26Z")
It can be done, but it’s a matter of technique, not of “all your might”. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692/6 "2015-04-15T03:08:00Z")
I’m a Californian, so my cold weather experience is limited, but generally, we can only expel visible “fog” by expelling warm, moisture-laden air directly from the lungs, with the mouth and throat open and the tongue held out of the way. Manipulating the air flow with the mouth and tongue, as we do when blowing smoke rings, gives that air time to equilibrate with the environment in the mouth. The mouth is somewhat warm and somewhat moist, but not enough to produce “fog.” I suppose you can do it if it’s cold enough, but I’d guess that you still need to minimize the time the air spends in your mouth. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692/7 "2015-04-15T03:47:07Z")
Mere lack of particulates is unlikely to be the reason. You don’t need smoke to make vortex rings. Smoke/fog just makes them visible. We need someone in a colder clime or with access to a walk-in freezer to test this. Take a simple home-made vortex ring generator into the cold air and see what happens. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692/8 "2015-04-15T04:25:41Z")
You can definitely make a vapor ring with cold air. I think your technique was off. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692/9 "2015-04-15T11:01:38Z")
I think the difference is that the smoke and your breath can be separated. But if all you’ve got is breath, everything that comes out of your mouth will have the same humidity and temperature, and can’t be easily separated. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2015, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-your-breath-and-smoke-rings-dopers-or-even-cecil/717692/10 "2015-04-15T11:10:28Z")
Supposing it’s possible, it wouldn’t last very long. Once your breath chills, it’s invisible. Your breath typically disappears in a second or two in frigid weather.