My five-year old wants to know what would happen if...?

Question

What happens if you you mix hot lava (from a volcano) with liquid nitrogen?

Answer 1

Liquid nitrogen, even when it comes in contact something as warm as skin will almost instantly evaporate. If you were to dump a few tablespoons of liquid nitrogen onto room temperature carpet, it would even evaporate very quickly. The amount of liquid nitrogen needed to cool even a few cups of lava would be enormous. Lava has a temperature of several thousands of degrees, rather than the about 100 degrees of a human hand. Despire common belief, you can actually pour liquid nitrogen onto your hand, because it will eveaporate before it even touches your hand. The heat emmitted from your body will cause it to evaporate before it even touches it. The same thing will happen with lava, except at an even further distance. Almost no change in temperature could be noticed.

Answer 2

Basically, hot lava has a significantly higher specific heat and heat capacity than nitrogen. If you mixed equal weights of lava and nitrogen, the nitrogen would quickly become gaseous and boil away. The lava might cool down slightly but I don't believe it would be noticeable. Humans have a hard time telling the difference between 2000 degrees and 1990 degrees without sophisticated measuring devices.

Answer 3

Depends on the quantity.
Too much lava, liquid nitrogen will just vaporize.
Too much liquid nitrogen, lava dries up and turns to rock.

Answer 4

The nitrogen would vaporize instantly, and the lava would probably still be as hot, depending on the amount of lava and nitrogen you are mixing. So nothing really exciting im affraid.

Answer 5

Child prodigy, indeed! Parents, please gear up and get hold of some encyclopedic literature.