does dry ice release coolness??

Question

does dry ice release cold? i know that sounds dumb. But if i were to put about 3 grams of dry ice into a glass container in the sun and cover the top with clear wrap, would the dry ice lower the temperature?

Answer 1

Um...

There is no such thing as the release of coolness.

Cold is the lack of heat, just like dark is the lack of light.

Therefore dry ice does not release coolness. However the dry ice would lower the temperature of the air in the glass container temparorily (sp?). Why?

Because the dry ice recieves heat from it's surroundings, making the temperature of the air lower. However when all the dry ice has evaporated into Carbon Dioxide, the sun's continual energy will heat up the container to around it's original temperature.

Answer 2

Scientists don't talk about releasing coldness. Coldness is the absence of heat. Heat would be transferred from the air trapped in the container into the dry ice to try and make the temperature the same. Yes the ice would lower the temperature, but 'coldness' is not released.

Dry ice is interesting because it can sublime, go directly from a solid to a gas and you wouldn't expect dry ice to make a puddle of CO2.

Answer 3

CO2 (dry ice) doesn't exist as a liquid at standard pressure and since enthalpy of sublimation (energy required to go from solid phase to vapor phase) is rather high, the CO2 absorbs a great deal of thermal energy from the environment, thus lowering the average kinetic energy of said environment (temperature).

Answer 4

Great words like hotness and coolness should be better understood. Dry-ice is not cold relative to say 200 kelvin so it won't release any coolness in that environment. Compared to what is how words like this need to be used.

Answer 5

no you more-on the heat goes to the cold