What to do if you accidentally made a “bomb” from a thermos and dry ice?
The instructions for use of thermoses clearly state: in no case pour dry ice inside (solid CO 2 with a temperature below –79 ° C)! However, many owners of thermoses do not read instructions, and even more of them do not understand physics.
In the same stupid situation recently hit the Englishman Pete French . His friends stayed with the child for the evening and entertained him with fun science experiments with dry ice. After that, some ice remained. Dad returned from a party and thought: do not waste good - and fell asleep in a thermos.
In the morning, the child asked me to show a couple more tricks.
Pete tried to open the thermos lid, but he didn’t succeed. At that moment, Pete began to realize that he had done something a little stupid ... If inside the thermos part of the crystals turned into gas, now the pressure in the chamber has increased. Perhaps the lid is stuck due to pressure or it is firmly frozen.
He began to make convulsive calculations. The volume of gas during evaporation exceeds the volume of dry ice by about 850 times. What pressure can there be inside? With the evaporation of all crystals, about 100 atmospheres are obtained! That is, a very dangerous device suddenly appeared in his hands. If all the ice evaporates, is there a chance the lid can withstand 100 atmospheres? Probably a chance of about zero. Now he looked at the thermos with completely different eyes: the thing in his hands was bound to explode after some time.
He realized that you need to seek the advice of experts. The first thing that came to mind was the idea to call sellers of dry ice. Who should be familiar with the problem, if not them? Pete called the firm, described the situation, and asked what to do. “I don't know, man. You are the first to ever do such a thing, ”a voice answered him on the other end of the line.
Then he called the fire department. The woman advised him to bury a thermos somewhere in the garden. Unfortunately, Pete lives in London and has no garden. She also said that in cases where explosive materials were found, it was necessary to evacuate neighboring quarters, call the police and call the rescue team. Pete was afraid to call the police, so as not to aggravate the problem.
Instead, the guy called a physicist friend, he quickly made calculations in his mind and came to the same conclusion: 100 atmospheres or more: “Oh hell ...”, he could only answer. However, together they found the most reasonable solution to the problem: drown the thermos in the Thames, lowering it to the bottom of the canal. It was clear that he himself would not drown, so they quickly covered the thermos with ceramic tiles and quickly ran to the canal with a bag, running around the people they met on the other side of the road.
The children practically prayed when the bag refused to sink under water and swam on the surface. In the end, she still drowned. Pete was left to look at what was happening - and after a few minutes the place where the bag fell was filled with a stream of bubbles.
Most likely, the lid simply broke off the thermos. But even a take-off cap from a plastic bottle can release enough energy for a beautiful fuse (see video).
The experiment starts at 3:00
In the same stupid situation recently hit the Englishman Pete French . His friends stayed with the child for the evening and entertained him with fun science experiments with dry ice. After that, some ice remained. Dad returned from a party and thought: do not waste good - and fell asleep in a thermos.
In the morning, the child asked me to show a couple more tricks.
Pete tried to open the thermos lid, but he didn’t succeed. At that moment, Pete began to realize that he had done something a little stupid ... If inside the thermos part of the crystals turned into gas, now the pressure in the chamber has increased. Perhaps the lid is stuck due to pressure or it is firmly frozen.
He began to make convulsive calculations. The volume of gas during evaporation exceeds the volume of dry ice by about 850 times. What pressure can there be inside? With the evaporation of all crystals, about 100 atmospheres are obtained! That is, a very dangerous device suddenly appeared in his hands. If all the ice evaporates, is there a chance the lid can withstand 100 atmospheres? Probably a chance of about zero. Now he looked at the thermos with completely different eyes: the thing in his hands was bound to explode after some time.
He realized that you need to seek the advice of experts. The first thing that came to mind was the idea to call sellers of dry ice. Who should be familiar with the problem, if not them? Pete called the firm, described the situation, and asked what to do. “I don't know, man. You are the first to ever do such a thing, ”a voice answered him on the other end of the line.
Then he called the fire department. The woman advised him to bury a thermos somewhere in the garden. Unfortunately, Pete lives in London and has no garden. She also said that in cases where explosive materials were found, it was necessary to evacuate neighboring quarters, call the police and call the rescue team. Pete was afraid to call the police, so as not to aggravate the problem.
Instead, the guy called a physicist friend, he quickly made calculations in his mind and came to the same conclusion: 100 atmospheres or more: “Oh hell ...”, he could only answer. However, together they found the most reasonable solution to the problem: drown the thermos in the Thames, lowering it to the bottom of the canal. It was clear that he himself would not drown, so they quickly covered the thermos with ceramic tiles and quickly ran to the canal with a bag, running around the people they met on the other side of the road.
The children practically prayed when the bag refused to sink under water and swam on the surface. In the end, she still drowned. Pete was left to look at what was happening - and after a few minutes the place where the bag fell was filled with a stream of bubbles.
Most likely, the lid simply broke off the thermos. But even a take-off cap from a plastic bottle can release enough energy for a beautiful fuse (see video).
The experiment starts at 3:00