Comments on: Hurray for the Leidenfrost Effect

By: Jay Manifold

Jay Manifold — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:02:45 +0000

Played around with squirt-bottles of water and hot plates in chem lab in HS. Grabbed the wrong one once and thought the bouncing drops looked funny. Squirted some more. Still looked funny. Only then thought to read the label on the bottle. Acetone. Fortunately, I was not in a 100%-oxygen atmosphere at the time; "Bondarenko had been undergoing routine training in a pressure chamber, which was part of a ten-day isolation exercise. At the very end of the exercise he made a trivial but fatal mistake. 'After medical tests,' explained Golovanov's article, 'Bondarenko removed the sensors attached to him, cleaned the spots where they had been attached with cotton wool soaked in alcohol, and without looking threw away the cotton wool-- which landed on the ring of an electric hot plate.'" Don't try this anywhere.

By: Wade

Wade — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:44:29 +0000

My Chem prof blew liquid nitrogen out of his mouth – it got our attention.

By: Obloodyhell

Obloodyhell — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:06:51 +0000

> Ok, that’s pretty cool right there.

Yeah, but he forgot the obligatory:

“Don’t try this at home, folks!!”

:oD

By: Nonnie

Nonnie — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:25:17 +0000

The important question is did you clean up the mess where you dropped the pan?

By: Phil Fraering

Phil Fraering — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:07:24 +0000

I guess the leidenfrost effect can be negated by the magic phrase “Here, hold my beer and watch this…”

By: Mike Wilson

Mike Wilson — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:34:32 +0000

Ok, that’s pretty cool right there.

I’m now going to have a real hard time with the “oh, c’mon, it’d be so cool to show off to friends if you could get it to work reliably” impulse that’s yielded so many hand and arm scars over the past 39 years.

By: James R. Rummel

James R. Rummel — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:20:36 +0000

You lucky bastich!

James

By: Andrew Garland

Andrew Garland — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:13:22 +0000

This is also how people walk across hot coals without burned feet. There is always some wet grass around the coal bed. Being nervous and sweaty also helps.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:04:58 +0000

If you do burn yourself like that, plunge the affected part into ice cold water and keep it there for a while, long past the point where it hurts because of the cold. This often minimizes the blister or eliminates it altogether.

By: Ginny

Ginny — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:25:50 +0000

Thanks.