What could possibly go wrong?
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00:00 What would happen if you poured liquid nitrogen all over your car?
00:05 Or used it to fight a fire?
00:08 Or even tried to cool down with it on a hot day?
00:13 Liquid nitrogen may look like a lot of fun when you're watching people dump everyday objects into it,
00:19 but it's actually a very dangerous substance.
00:23 And if someone were to dump you in it,
00:26 the fun would quickly come to an end.
00:29 This is WHAT IF,
00:32 and here's what would happen if you fell into a pool of liquid nitrogen.
00:37 Did you know that hundreds of people voluntarily jumped into a pool of liquid nitrogen?
00:42 It's true, it happened at a promotional pool party in 2013.
00:47 By the end of the event, one person was in a coma,
00:50 and eight others had been rushed to the hospital.
00:53 So what is it that makes this substance so dangerous?
00:58 What would you feel as you dove into a pool full of it?
01:02 And would it actually be strong enough to freeze your entire body?
01:07 Before we go jumping into a whole pool of it, let's get to know liquid nitrogen a little better.
01:12 Liquid nitrogen, or LN2 as the cool kids call it,
01:16 is non-flammable, odorless, and colorless.
01:20 And it creates a notorious fog whenever it's exposed to room temperature air.
01:25 It can be used to freeze and transport food products,
01:28 to preserve sperm and eggs,
01:30 and to remove skin abnormalities, among other things.
01:34 Recently, its use has been embraced by the public,
01:37 with chefs and bartenders using it to create fancy ice creams and cocktails.
01:42 With this new fascination with liquid nitrogen,
01:45 and the fact that it's available to the public,
01:47 something terrible was bound to happen.
01:50 And that brings us back to the LN2 pool party that we mentioned before.
01:54 In an effort to create a smoke effect to impress guests,
01:58 a resort in Mexico poured four large cans of liquid nitrogen into the hotel pool.
02:03 It created an impressive fog, but it also did something the organizers didn't know about.
02:09 It displaced the oxygen around the pool.
02:12 And with no oxygen, guests couldn't breathe.
02:16 Luckily though, since it was just four cans of liquid nitrogen that were added slowly,
02:21 it boiled off in the water before it made contact with anyone's skin.
02:25 So how much worse would it have been if the entire pool was filled with pure liquid nitrogen?
02:33 Well, one thing's for sure, you wouldn't want to go for a swim in it.
02:37 You'd be better off just dipping your hand in quickly.
02:40 If you were to quickly submerge your hand in liquid nitrogen,
02:43 it would feel frozen, but there wouldn't be any frostbite or damage
02:47 because of something called the Leidenfrost effect.
02:50 Because liquid nitrogen boils at the very low temperature of -196 °C (320 °F),
02:57 it will beat up and create a layer of vapor underneath it
03:00 when it touches any surface that's at room temperature,
03:03 similar to when you drop water onto a flat, heated surface.
03:07 So if you dipped your hand inside liquid nitrogen,
03:10 a vapor barrier would immediately form that protected your hand from freezing.
03:15 But the protective barrier would only be temporary.
03:19 If you were planning on taking a long swim, you wouldn't be coming back out.
03:23 Instead, you'd get severe frostbite all over your body.
03:27 Then the cold would work its way deeper inside you.
03:31 Muscles, fat, your blood, and every other liquid in your body would be frozen solid.
03:38 If you kept your head above the surface,
03:40 your body would freeze underneath you, and you'd sink right down.
03:44 But hey, on the bright side, there probably wouldn't be much pain involved,
03:47 since the nerve damage would be so severe and occur so quickly.
03:52 As terrible as this would be for a living creature,
03:55 it could actually be beneficial for a dead one.
03:58 Instead of being buried or cremated,
04:00 some people have chosen to have their bodies frozen when they die.
04:04 It's called cryogenic freezing,
04:06 and the idea is you can be frozen and brought back to life at a later date.
04:12 But that's a topic for another WHAT IF.
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