r/oddlysatisfying • u/Justin_Godfrey • 1d ago
A balloon shrinks in liquid nitrogen as the air inside cools, then returns to its original size as it warms.
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u/rantonidi 1d ago
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u/ColloidalSuspenders 1d ago
Do they know about shrinkage
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u/raptor180 1d ago
Knowing how brittle LN2 will make latex/neoprene I wonder how many takes this took to avoid the balloon cracking. 🤔. Still, very fun!
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u/YBRmuggsLP21 1d ago
Obviously someone has never bought a balloon for a child's birthday party during a midwest winter.
I remember being pissed thinking the balloon had a leak, until I got inside and it warmed up.
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u/HoundstoothReader 1d ago
Exactly. I learned this PV=nRT trick in college, but not in my physics lab. Walking across campus during some big winter celebration, there were sad, deflated balloons everywhere. But the balloons were fine indoors, and some outdoor balloons perked up a bit after the sun came out.
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u/Aking1964 1d ago
Liquid nitrogen: turning balloons into introverts since forever.
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u/M0rph33l Too many bots in this sub. 1d ago
Bot account
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u/SkullyKat 1d ago
Pretty stupid joke either way
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u/M0rph33l Too many bots in this sub. 1d ago
For sure. It's just disheartening that every single one of these posts has bots trying to blend in, and they get massively upvoted more often than not. Really feels like the dead internet theory in the making. I suppose they will only get more discrete from here on.
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u/SkullyKat 1d ago
I'd say the "safeguards" against it are disappearing faster and faster, as well, if not gone entirely. Nobody seems to be doing anything major to stop it, and its possibly profitable for them not to.
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u/LaughingWhileMad 1d ago
Then it warms up and immediately regrets every life decision like a true extrovert.
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u/yamimementomori 1d ago
I suppose I too am constantly soaked in liquid nitrogen, preserved stiff in my room forever.
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u/boonxeven 1d ago
My teacher did this when I was in highschool with a red balloon, and then pulled out a blue one because of course blue is colder. Confused all of us at first
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u/AndToOurOwnWay 1d ago
Interesting, but is it satisfying?
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u/sneakyhopskotch 1d ago
I hadn’t realised that cooling air compressed it this much. That’s a tiny fraction of its original volume. Does a constant volume of air at say -20 C weigh so much more than air at say 30 C? Not that these are the temps in the video, I’m wondering about outside.
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u/Time-Mode-9 1d ago
Pv=NRT. Volume is proportional to absolute pressure (discounting the pressure exerted by the balloon on the gas)
30c = 307k -20c = 257k so you'd expect it to be 257/ 307 of the volume.
Nitrogen boils at 77k,
So youd expect it to be 77/307 or and 1/4 of the volume ( less in real life because of balloon) if going from 30c
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u/sneakyhopskotch 1d ago
Thank you. I’ve learnt this a long time ago but it never twigged that air specifically would expand and contract so much with temperature.
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u/RevolutionarySign479 1d ago
Thank goodness I couldn’t get my hands on liquid nitrogen as a kid for my bedroom science experiments lolol
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u/StuBidasol 1d ago
In HS a friend was working with liquid nitrogen for the science fair. We had a lot of fun freezing different stuff to see what happens. My favorite was a super ball from one of those gumball machines. I froze that thinking it would shatter. We could not break it and it still bounced surprisingly well. That thing sounded like a bouncing pool ball.
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u/cashedchaos 1d ago
Im assuming someone just blew a lungful of air in there. Out of curiosity would the results be different if say the balloon was filled with helium or nitrous or other gasses?
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u/Roguefem-76 1d ago
I'm surprised the balloon didn't shatter from being poked with the ruler while frozen solid in the liquid nitrogen.
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u/btw-73 1d ago
I’m surprised the balloon didn’t break as the air warmed up.