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  • What would happen if you poured

  • liquid nitrogen all over your car?

  • Or used it to fight a fire?

  • Or even tried to cool down with it on a hot day?

  • Liquid nitrogen may look like a lot of fun

  • when you're watching people dump everyday objects into it,

  • but it's actually a very dangerous substance.

  • And if someone were to dump you in it,

  • the fun would quickly come to an end.

  • Did you know that hundreds of people voluntarily jumped

  • into a pool of liquid nitrogen?

  • It's true! It happened at a promotional pool party in 2013.

  • By the end of the event, one person was in a coma,

  • and eight others had been rushed to the hospital.

  • Before we go jumping into a whole pool of it,

  • let's get to know liquid nitrogen a little better.

  • Liquid nitrogen, or LN2 as the cool kids call it,

  • is nonflammable, odorless, and colorless;

  • and it creates a notorious fog whenever it's exposed to room temperature air.

  • It can be used to freeze and transport food products,

  • to preserve sperm and eggs,

  • and to remove skin abnormalities, among other things.

  • Recently, its use has been embraced by the public,

  • with chefs and bartenders using it to create fancy ice creams and cocktails.

  • With this new fascination with liquid nitrogen and the fact that's its available to the public,

  • something terrible was bound to happen.

  • And that brings us back to the LN2 pool party that we mentioned before.

  • In an effort to create a smoke effect to impress guests,

  • a resort in Mexico poured four large cans of liquid nitrogen into the hotel pool.

  • It created an impressive fog, but

  • it also did something the organizers didn't know about:

  • it displaced the oxygen around the pool.

  • And with no oxygen, guests couldn't breathe.

  • Luckily though, since it was just four cans of liquid nitrogen that were added slowly,

  • it boiled off in the water before it made contact with anyone's skin.

  • So how much worse would it have been

  • if the entire pool was filled with pure liquid nitrogen?

  • Well, one thing's for sure. You wouldn't want to go for a swim in it.

  • You'd be better off just dipping your hand in quickly.

  • If you were to quickly submerge your hand in liquid nitrogen, it would feel frozen but

  • there wouldn't be any frostbite or damage

  • because of something called the Leidenfrost effect.

  • Because liquid nitrogen boils at the very low temperature of -196 °C (−320 °F),

  • it will bead up and create a layer of vapor underneath it

  • when it touches any surface that's at room temperature,

  • similar to when you drop water onto a flat heated surface.

  • So if you dipped your hand inside liquid nitrogen,

  • a vapor barrier would immediately form that protected your hand from freezing.

  • But the protective barrier would only be temporary.

  • If you were planning on taking a long swim,

  • you wouldn't be coming back out.

  • Instead, you'd get severe frostbite all over your body.

  • Then, the cold would work its way deeper inside you.

  • Muscles, fat, your blood, and every other liquid in your body would be frozen solid.

  • If you kept your head above the surface,

  • your body would freeze underneath you, and you'd sink right down.

  • But hey, on the bright side,

  • there probably wouldn't be much pain involved since

  • the nerve damage would be so severe and occur so quickly.

  • As terrible as this would be for a living creature,

  • it could actually be beneficial for a dead one.

  • Instead of being buried or cremated,

  • some people have chosen to have their bodies frozen when they die.

  • It's called cryogenic freezing.

  • And the idea is that you can be frozen and brought back to life at a later date.

  • But that's a topic for another WHAT IF.

What would happen if you poured

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