• Question: How cold is liquid nitrogen

    Asked by anon-193402 to iainstaniland, Carl on 10 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Carl Heron

      Carl Heron answered on 10 Nov 2018:

      Very cold. Liquid nitrogen boils at nearly -200 degrees centigrade. That’s even colder than my house in winter.

      Have you ever noticed that liquid nitrogen appears to levitate? Liquid nitrogen splashed onto the floor appears to skitter away just over the surface. There are videos where people throw liquid nitrogen out onto a crowd (I don’t recommend this of course). No one is harmed though because this effect prevents any of the super-cold liquid from touching them. Never, EVER put anything into a container of liquid nitrogen though. It will freeze so quickly and this can be dangerous, especially if it’s a finger or toe.

    • Photo: Iain Staniland

      Iain Staniland answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      As Carl said, under normal conditions Nitrogen becomes a gas at around -196 oC what I found fascinating about this was that it becomes a solid at -210 oC and that is pretty cold. So imagine how chilly it must be on Pluto where solid Nitrogen is found all over the surface!

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