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Superhot beats supercold in a cloud of spectacular smoke!

By clock on March 5, 2008.

Thermite annihilates liquid nitrogen:

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Yes, I've seen many Brainiac clips on YouTube and this is one of my favorites. The other is the video experiment they do where one person is dressed in a bee suit and they go through the exchange experiment in realtime. Then they slow it down so you can actually see the bee enter the frame. Too funny.

Don't you find "science" shows like this kind of ridiculous, though? Would it kill them to take 30 seconds out of the schedule to describe the weight of the two samples, or (more fun) do 3 different iterations: one with a lot more liquid nitrogen, and one where they were evenly matched? I know people just like to watch stuff explode... but it seems like they're missing so many teachable moments.

Interesting - that was my exact thought when I watched this: what is the explanation for what we saw and would a much larger quantity of liquid nitrogen actually be able to survive, if not extinguish, the heat of the moment.