1001 things to do with Liquid Nitrogen

As we all know liquid nitrogen is mainly used for...

making icecream by stirring for example yoghurt under it.

(mind the carpet!; Darmstadt Group)

putting pieces of chalk in it for making little hovercrafts (best on linoleum floors!)

twirling in large basins so that because of its low viscosity you get a

(nearly) infinitly turning maelstrom. It's good fun to watch little

paper-boats floating on it for minutes.

inhaling its fumes because everybody will make eyes on you exhaling.

freezing your partner's chair while he is shortly absent.

for squirting water in it. If you use a spray-bottle you can squirt funny

ice patterns into a basin with nitrogen. My alltime favorite: Helmar's ice-earrings

one word: marshmellows

its nice for cooling a good beer in a basin of water on which the nitrogen is poured

(not much fun to look at, but great fun to drink; Darmstadt Group)

Put on a rubber surgical glove with a hot dog (saussage) stuck in one of the

fingers. Put the hot dog in the liquid nitrogen and then, to the amazement

of your friends, smash your "finger" with a hammer. (Wes Denisson)

Comment: Keep in mind which finger...

Get a pot of boiling water and pour some nitrogen in it. You will watch the

mists of hell shrouding the floor. It's good fun to test how long

you can stand sticking a finger into it - a cool feeling ...

Get about a liter of soap bubble solution hot and pour about a cupful of liquid

nitrogen in it. Bubbles go everywhere! (Wes Denisson)

Break a light bulb, put the filament into liquid nitrogen and turn it on.

Looks cool! (Wes Denisson)

Put a little bit of nitrogen in a can with a plastic snap on lid. We use a

Pringles Chip can. After you pour in the nitrogen seal the lid. The lid will

pop off with a boom and fly off. (David Hutchison)

Blow up a balloon. Put the inflated balloon in the nitrogen. It will deflate,

then take it out and it will inflate as it warms up. (David Hutchison)

A siberian frog frozen in liquid nitrogen shall come to life again if you throw

it back into the water. (Prof. Alois Loidl, who never tried it in public, but

used a wind-up frog of his children instead, for demonstration)

Freeze a can of shaving cream and then peel the can away from the

cream. Put the canless cream into someone's car. Let the oven-like

heat from the car's sitting in the sun defrost the shaving cream.

2 cans will fill an entire car. (Coulter C. Henry,Jr.)

Freeze a banana in liquid nitrogen and use it to hammer a nail. (Wes Dennison)

Here is a small anecdote I will just quote: "Wir haben hier nebenbei auch 'ne

Anwendung entdeckt. Eigentlich wollten wir eine wassergefüllte PET-Flasche (Cola)

unter Druck setzen und dann als Rakete hochschießen. Mit Aufpumpen haben wir leider

nur 5 bar erreicht. Deswegen haben wir in die Colaflasche ca. halb mit Wasser gefüllt.

und dann ca 100 - 200 ml LN2 zugegeben und den Deckel geschlossen. Im Deckel war ein

Loch in das wir ein Fahrradventil (nur die äussere Röhre ohne den eigentlichen

Ventileinsatz) gesteckt hatten. Da drin war ein Gummistöpsel. Eigentlich sollte es bei

Erreichen des Enddrucks (was auch immer der hätte sein sollen) den Stopfen rausdrücken

und die Rakete vom Wasserstrahl hochgehoben werden. Es hat aber den gesamten Schraubdeckel

abgerissen. Das Wasser ging ziemlich schnell raus und die Rakete ist immerhin bis zum 7.

Stock (ca. 30m) geflogen." (Thnx to Markus Selve in Stuttgart)

Here is another quote: As an employee of the Franklin Institute Science Museum in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I had many occasions to use liquid nitrogen in our Hot & Cold show:

One thing we used to do for smaller groups was to freeze a graham cracker and

then eat it. The vapors released through your mouth and nose are quite

dramatic and it really does tintilate your tastebuds! Of course, we usually

waved the cracker around just a little before eating it to be sure no drops of

the really cold stuff linger. (Thnx to Jeeplass in Philadelphia)

This story was mailed to me too: For several years our Society of Physics Students

chapter has entertained visiting students with a spectacular liquid nitrogen depth charge.

The term "depth charge" is used because we have a large extremely durable plastic trash can filled

with about 40 cm of water. - After a short safty talk, focusing on the rule of NEVER tightly sealing

a vessel containing liquid nitrogen, we use a long-necked metal funnel to pour perhaps half a liter of

liquid nitrogen into an ordinary 2 liter soda bottle. Then we tightly screw on the cap, and drop it into

the water! - For several seconds, one can hear the bottle expanding! The preferential orientation of the

polymers makes the bottle get longer and longer, rather than a more spherical expansion. However, eventually

the polymers just can't take it anymore, and BOOM! A quite satisfying detonation, sending water, nitrogen

vapor, and bits of plastic high into the air. - The heavy duty plastic can serves to direct the "shrapnel"

upwards, it is lots safer this way versus just setting the bottle on the grass and running away!

(picture 1, picture 2; Thnx to Earl Blodgett in Wisconsin)

Larry Weinstein sent me the following: We have two more demos we use LN2 for here at ODU:

1) Take a 'ringshooter' (used to demonstrate Lenz's Law by placing an aluminum ring around

an AC electromagnet [made by wrapping wire around a long thin iron core - typically 15-20 cm

high and 3 cm in diameter] - the Al ring will jump into the air, a split Al ring and a nonconducting

ring will not move) and demonstrate that the Al ring will jump from the magnetic repulsion. Now

chill the Al ring in LN2. Repeat the demonstration and the ring will jump MUCH higher (since its

resistance decreases substantially at -200 C)

2) Take a thinwalled metal cone, point downward (a sealed metal funnel will work). Fill it with LN2.

Wait. Oxygen will condense out of the air and drip from the tip of the cone. Hold the tip of the funnel

between the poles of a strong magnet. The drops of liquid oxygen will levitate there (if the field is

strong enough) giving a rare good demonstration of paramagnetism. (This demo is courtesy of Sebastian

Kuhn, also at ODU.)

Four suggestions by TOM MILLER(Air Force Research Lab):

(1) Start a show by sticking one end of very flexible tubing

(e.g., latex or tygon) down into a dewar; the heat of the tubing

will cause LN2 to spray out the other end of the tubing, and

you can direct the spray at the audience. After the submerged

end of the tubing is completely frozen (and the spraying stops),

remove from the dewar and whack the frozen end on a table

and watch it break into pieces.

(2) Wrap a long piece of latex tubing around itself and stick

the whole thing into a dewar of LN2 until completely frozen.

Remove and place on a table, and continue with the rest of

your show. After a few minutes, the tubing will slowly start to

move, sometimes crawling across the table.

(3) Stick flowers in LN2 and then crumble them in my hand;

large ones like carnations are best. Sounds simple, but the

kids love it.

(4) I freeze balloons, as you mention, but in a better way.

Blow up a balloon and slip the end of the balloon over the open

end of a test tube, and place the closed end in a dewar full of

LN2. Your breath in the balloon will slowly liquify (10-15 minutes).

When the balloon is completely deflated, lift the test tube out of

the dewar and the audience can see your liquified breath in the

test tube. The tube will frost up, but you can wipe the frost off

with your fingers. Rest the test tube in a beaker, and as time

passes, the balloon will inflate again.



Please email me if you have any fancy ideas to be published about what else can be done with liquid nitrogen.

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