• Question: Can liquid nitrogen freeze and break metal or rock?

    Asked by MrMClass to Triona, Kieran, Hugh, Emily on 5 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Kieran

      Kieran answered on 5 Nov 2018:

      When you freeze a metal such as iron to low temperatures using liquid nitrogen it make shte metal more brittle and easier to break!

    • Photo: Triona

      Triona answered on 6 Nov 2018:

      Like a lot of things, it depends – rock, not so much but metals, it depends on the composition of the metal. If you want to look up why Napolean’s army was defeated in Russia, you’ll find interesting information on the brass buttons on his soldiers uniforms and how the brass buttons all broke up because of the freezing temperatures – this is due to what is called ‘stress corrosion cracking’. Some metals have better resistance at low temperatures than others. You pick your materials to suit your application.

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