Liquid Nitrogen...what to do....

A mate of mine is getting a small amount of liquid nitrogen, about 1 litre or less. What are some fun and interesting things to do with it, other than making ice cream?

Putting some banana's into it, put a flower into it, you can shatter it. One fun thing to do, is blow up a balloon and dip it in, the balloon will shrink rapidly and become very brittle, but if you handle it carefully enough, as it warms up again, it should re inflate itself.

Where do you get liquid nitrogen? I want some!

As for what to do: freeze things! Everything!

-Mark

yes me too...

lol

You can try dunking a running (from wires, not batteries!) laser diode in, and see what it does to brightness and wavelength.

Thermal stresses might very well break it either going in or out, so dont use anything too expensive.

guys what happen if you will accidentally spill it on your hand???

It will burn you. You will be left with injuries resembling a thermal burn. Depending on how much spilled it could just be a surface burn or a deep tissue burn.

^What he said. But also to add to it, get it off your skin FAST. The longer it is in contact with skin, the worse it is. If you can get it off fast enough, you can get away with little or no damage. And LN won't wet your skin, it should ball up and run right off (as long as the amount isn't too large).

It won't burn you instantly, you'll have a split second. The heat from your skin will boil away the tiny amount of LN that actually touches your skin (think nano/micrometers), and will give you a small barrier before it hurts you, but think on the order of milliseconds or microseconds.

DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME, OR IF YOU HAVE NEVER HAD ANY EXPERIENCE WITH LIQUID NITROGEN OR OTHER CRYOGENIC LIQUIDS: To kind of prove this, you can actually stick your finger in a cup of liquid nitrogen as long as you pull it back out instantly- like in and out of the cup as fast as you can move your hand. It feels kind of weird, and no damage as long as you do it fast enough.

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nvmextc said:

A mate of mine is getting a small amount of liquid nitrogen, about 1 litre or less. What are some fun and interesting things to do with it, other than making ice cream?

Click to expand...

Try running a PHR at 1 amp and cooling it with LN

Dip an Oreo in it...
Then take the Oreo out, and eat it.

Trust me, it is the best thing ever!!!

Wow, lots of ideas guys. Thanks! I like the balloon experiment, and the sound of superfrozen Oreo. Thought didn't even cross my mind to use it for a laser lol. I shall set up a heatsink for one to get dipped in.

What about some less obvious stuff, any sort of chemical reactions take place with it, or would they all be to unsafe for small quantities in a backyard. Like I was thinking of chucking a Magnalium PHR sled into it cos of the reaction that takes place with magnesium and nitrogen to make magnesium nitride. I don't know what would happen to the aluminium in this though :-/

btw rocketparrotlet, we got this at work, someone was blocking a pipe with it and my friend asked them about it and got half a little bottle.

There's a good chance the laser idea might not work well...at all.  

The materials in it all have different coefficients of thermal expansion.  Throwing it in liquid nitrogen will probably just shatter several parts of the diode and it's casing.  Especially the glass window glued to a metal can, I doubt that part survives, as well as many of the other places where different materials are in contact.

Not saying low temperatures won't have an effect on how a laser works, but that sudden drop in temperature and with how the diode is mounted in the can, I don't see it ending well.  

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LN can also make metals very brittle; especially certain types of metals, which can undergo a huge change in toughness at low temperatures.  Many steels will have this property, but not all.  If you're not sure for a type of steel, just google the designation for that metal and "dbtt" or "ductile brittle transition temperature".  So some ordincary pieces of steel, which are quite tough at room temperature, will shatter with just a hit from a hammer at LN temperature (this may or may not be safe for you and your circumstances; take LOTS of precautions, little shards of flying steel are not something you want hitting you in the eye).

You can also make liquid oxygen  [smiley=evil.gif].  Quite flammable, and something you don't want to try at home, as well.  Some things, when soaked in liquid oxygen, can detonate spontaneously or unpredictably.  You probably won't be able to get much oxygen anyway, but it can still be dangerous stuff. Oh yeah, and it's blue, which I think many people don't expect (I didn't).

Sorry, I just keep suggesting all these "don't do this" ideas.  But at least you'll have them later when you're in safer environments, like real labs where it's ok.

Cool your pc maybe?

Here's something you can do.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnTYaargFLY[/media]