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 Replies: 22 / Views: 2,914 |
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Valued Member
United States
289 Posts |
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Valued Member
Canada
311 Posts |
Try it and see if it does break in half. Probably wont work on a 1909 VDB. Very Durable Bronze.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
759 Posts |
I break my potato chips with my teeth, so my money is on more dental work and frozen fingertips.
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Valued Member
 United States
289 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2448 Posts |
You can get liquid nitrogen to play with that way? Neat!
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Valued Member
United States
228 Posts |
Congratulations! You have demonstrated a clear mastery of the emoticons!  |
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
My guess is you might be able to shatter it, but I doubt a clean break.
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Valued Member
United States
380 Posts |
I dont think that clean break is in the question. I believe it would shatter as well...
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Liquid nitrogen won't have much effect on metals.
I have seen LN used for forming an ice plug inside a water main to turn off a water supply, to enable repairs to the pipe.
Perhaps you have seen or heard of the effect LN has on rubber articles. When they are frozen, they harden, and will shatter into small pieces with impact shock. When the pieces warm up again, they regain their rubber resilience.
Dry ice (CO2) in a tin can urinal? Now that IS funny!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1348 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1510 Posts |
I saw a flower and a frog break up in Liqued Oxygen with a freezing point of 50.5 K (��'368.77 °F; ��'222.65 °C)pretty cool
funnest thing with LOX is mix it with boiling water-- it explodes!
Retired USAF 1983-2003
Edited by Coinstar
04/10/2011 12:39 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4897 Posts |
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
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4989 Posts |
Quoting the "ask a scientist" web site:
"many metals can become brittle at temperatures
well above that of liquid nitrogen (-196 deg C or -321 deg F). This
tendency to be brittle (i.e., fracture under impact) is referred to as a
metal's "toughness" and this toughness is temperature sensitive"
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Moderator
 Australia
16809 Posts |
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.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Valued Member
South Africa
169 Posts |
Now that is a COOL trick SAP. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
19935 Posts |
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.
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Replies: 22 / Views: 2,914 |
Posted 04/09/2011 12:56 pm
