Scientists

Why?

I believe the "dipped" item has to be organic (contain carbon). Metals (other than some types of steel) are inorganic. I very well could. Be wrong its been 25 years since I've taken a chemstry course. LOL

Zinc is already brittle at room temperature; cooling a zinc cent to liquid nitrogen temperatures will not make it appreciably more brittle.

Cooling a quarter with LN2 might make it more brittle, but I think you're more likely to see a more spectacular effect; an American quarter is clad, and the two different alloys (the cupronickel cladding and the pure copper core) have slightly different thermal expansion properties i.e. they will shrink by different amounts when cooled. Cooling a clad quarter could well result in the cladding tearing away and the coin spontaneously splitting (or splitting with very little effort) into two or three pieces.

This may even explain the origin of some of the "missing clad layer" errors seen about the place.

Most metals remain malleable at LN temperatures. You're thinking of organic materials (carbon based) that shatter. I've done with with some insects at work, drop 'em in, let 'em freeze, pour out the critter and smack it with something and it breaks into a lot of pieces. LOL

Sap - I like your theory. I think I'll do a clad quarter and a Zincoln next week and report what happens.

Dry ice is around -150°F. It turns directly from a solid to a gas when warmed. Urine is 98.6°F, immediately creating huge quantities of gas.

Get some dry ice. Take half a pound and hammer it into pieces that will go into a 2 liter bottle (take care in handling as it will quickly give you frostbite). Add a cup of water, simply to speed up conversion to gas. Put the cap on tightly and get away from it. Do not go near it, because it will explode, usually in a minute or so. The more it stretches the plastic, the bigger the boom. We tossed one into a beat-up kitchen trash can. It ripped it up pretty bad, the cap and part of the bottle (so hard you couldn't bend it) went over a three-story building and 45' away.

LOX needs handled with care. One day, they blacktopped a parking lot, covering everything from dirt to gravel to cement. When they finished, a guy pulled up with LOX.

He asked if they remembered one area that was concrete, then told them they'd have to remove the blacktop from that area. Seems that when LOX hits blacktop, it catches fire on contact, no source of ignition needed.

Biggfred - You are right )ou cannot mix LOX with any petroleum product! All oxygen LOX, Bottled or even from a concentrator can be volitale when mixed with any petroleum product. Even Vaseline!

eric273. This is sort of what happens a lot here. Kind of the old story of someone asking what time it is and you end up with someone telling you how watches were invented.