The stuff of which awesome party tricks are made. I have myself put a very small amount of liquid nitrogen in my mouth and blown it out, although I then heard that the guy who taught me that trick (Jearl Walker) cracked a tooth doing that, so I never tried it again. And for the love of god do not swallow or you will literally kill yourself very painfully -- see footnote 3 of the above Wikipedia article.
I think I'll stick with dipping fingers briefly into LN, which is way less stupid. Done that many times. Do not get it on your clothing, though, because then you can't retreat quickly and the frost is going to bite!
"What was really astounding about Michael's case is that the liquid nitrogen instantly expanded from a volume of about 3 or 4 cc's to about 3 or 4 liters and then dissected into five separate body compartments"
I am aware of that effect, and I have seen it in action. I am trying to reconcile what I see in the video with what I have seen of Leidenfrost in the past.
He actually grips the object, and I don't see extra smoke. When I have observed the Leidenfrost effect in the past, I see a noticable increase in outgassing, and the liquid (as it usually is) skitters about freely, so it seems like it might be difficult to grasp an object through the vapor layer.
Actually, are we sure the liquid nitrogen is actually hitting his hand? The point of contact is obscured by vapour. I mean, I'm familiar with the effect, but can also believe that a big stream of liquid nitrogen is gonna hit you and it's gonna hurt.
That does not look like liquid nitrogen. It's solid so that tells me it is carbon dioxide.
Believe it or not you can dip your hand in liquid nitrogen for 10 seconds without it freezing immediately and breaking off. I think carbon dioxide is solid at higher temperatures than nitrogen but I could be wrong on that one.
