why don't eyeballs freeze in the cold?

Answer 1

tears have a very high salt content, which substantially lowers the freezing point. they are also warmed by the small blood vessels in them, and the warm sockets in your skull

Answer 2

Water actually has a lot of resistance to temperature changes... much more so than dry tissue. You will start losing skin long before your eyes freeze. What's more, when your body starts to become cold it conserves heat in your torso and your head - your fingers may get cold as your body makes this adjustment, but your eyes never will.

In fact, about the only eye injury I can find associated with cold is freezing your corneas (link 1). The corneas of your eyes don't have blood flowing directly through them (you wouldn't be able to see through the capillaries) and unlike the rest of your eyeball are sitting on the outside most of the time. But even this is generally attributed to staring into cold winds and forcing your eyes open... not things most people would normally do.

Answer 3

Eventually, they would.

The liquid around them has a very high salt content. Salt lowers the freezing temperature of water (which is why salt is used to de-ice roads and to make ice cream).

Also, eyeballs that are still inside someone's head have the benefit of warm blood being pumped through them...Same reason your fingertips don't freeze when you go out into the cold.

If you're asking why your eyeballs don't feel cold when you're outside, it's because the surface of the eyeball doesn't have any nerve endings to feel anything. When you have something in your eye, you actually feel this in your eyelid, not your eyeball. This is what makes it reasonably easy to put in contact lenses.

Answer 4

how do we know they dont?
i work in a freezer, witch is for the most part minus 18C,
but in places (under the fans) is minus 24C due to wind chill or something, im not in there for longer than 20 mins at a time, and there are times my eyes get sore, not frozen , but itchy at least.

i asked my opticain if contact lenses that are water based are safe for those conditions and he didnt know, so i go without just in case.