• Question: Why liquid nitrogen

    Asked by to Jess on 17 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by 11hunti.
    • Photo: Jess Bean

      Jess Bean answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      So nitrogen is the most common element in the air – we breath in more nitrogen than oxygen in every breath.
      If you cool nitrogen gas down to −196 °C, it becomes a liquid. We can stored this in big insulating flasks to keep it cool and when it is poured out, it evaporates really quickly. It is mostly used for cooling reactions down quickly.
      To chemists, liquid nitrogen is pretty fun to be honest. If you put things into liquid nitrogen it cools them down really quickly to very low temperatures, which also makes them brittle (if bananas are out in liquid nitrogen, they can be smashed (carefully) with a hammer.

      It can also be used for making ice cream!
      If anyone’s around the University of Bath this Thursday for the open day I will gladly make some for you! Its very tasty

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