• Question: Why is liquid nitrogen as cold as it is?

    Asked by anon-193402 to iainstaniland on 12 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Iain Staniland

      Iain Staniland answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      This is because different materials change state from solid to liquid to gas at different temperatures.

      Everyone knows that water (H2O) freezes or turns into a solid below 0 oC, and into a gas at 100 oC.

      On Earth Nitrogen is normally found as a gas, but if we cool it enough we can turn it into a liquid, although we have to get it down to a very chilly -195.79 oC. This is its boiling point!
      Interesting to get solid Nitrogen you have to chill it to -210 oC. Solid Nitrogen is found on the surface of Pluto.

      So if liquid Nitrogen wasn’t cold it would be a gas!

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