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Liquid Nitrogen

This Science Minute was researched and written by Canon S. of Ithaca, NY.

Have you ever touched anything colder than ice cubes? Liquid nitrogen is so cold that if you add it to cream and sugar, you'll get ice cream almost instantly!

Nitrogen is the largest single component in the earth's atmosphere.

Liquid nitrogen is made by cooling nitrogen down to between -320 or -350 degrees Fahrenheit. That's so cold that it can cause instant frostbite!

Food products and biological specimens can be kept cold and transported in liquid nitrogen.

If you get a chance to experiment with liquid nitrogen, you'll see mist. The mist isn't the nitrogen—it's water. The nitrogen is so cold that it turns the water vapor in the air into tiny water droplets.

Nitrogen is in the air all around us. We might take it for granted in the gas form, but not as a liquid!