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Comment by _snydly | Hacker News Reader

Pouring liquid nitrogen on your hand and letting it roll off is actually pretty fun (and safe). Just don't let it sit there..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect

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... and don't wear a ring or wristwatch. Been there.

you can let it sit there too LN is mostly safe, dry ice can be a much bigger pain since there is solid to solid contact but even it isn't that bad.

You have quite a large thermal mass a bit of LN won't do that much damage to you, you can dip your hand into LN and keep it there for quite a while :)

You can also wet your hand and dip your fingers into sufficiently hot lead, and again, the leidenfrost effect will protect you (as long as you don't keep your fingers in there for too long).

I have strong doubts about that actually the case, I've seen what happens when water drips into molten metal (things go boom) and even if that wasn't the case the steam would be super heated which is enough to burn your hand to crisp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTOCAd2QhGg Mythbusters have tested it themselves and confirmed that it works. The molten lead does have to be at a specific temperature (Too cold, and the steam isn't enough to protect your fingers and slow down the evaporation. Too hot, and the water evaporates pretty much instantly too.)

> hot lead

To me at least, this sounds terrifying compared to the liquid nitrogen.

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