A+++ reference. True man of culture.

Okay this made me laugh

But is it hot or cold?

data said:
But is it hot or cold?

Memes aside, it's extremely cold, but it feels like it's burning because it instantly causes frostbite.
(This is incorrect, see Escher's comment below.)
In the video this is referencing, the LA Beast screamed about how his hand was "burning off," ran to the bathroom, and stuffed his hand in his toilet.

hilarius

vibrantlordiction said:
Memes aside, it's extremely cold, but it feels like it's burning because it instantly causes frostbite.

That's not right. Sodium acetate can be supercooled, meaning it's still liquid but below its freezing point, but the actual temperature of it is only room temperature. When you put a seed crystal in it to make it spontaneously crystalize, well, crystallization (freezing) is an exothermic process, meaning it releases heat, so the whole mass rapidly becomes hot. This is actually true of any crystallization. When water reaches 0 C and starts freezing into ice, it stops getting colder, but keeps emitting heat into your freezer. It has to give off energy in order to convert from a liquid at 0 C to a solid at 0 C, and that energy release warms up the environment around it.

That said, sodium acetate shouldn't be hot enough to burn, so I suspect LA Beast was intentionally overplaying his reaction for the clicks. Sodium acetate is the stuff in hand warmer packets -- it can be warm enough to be a bit uncomfortable on your skin, but it's not like you shoved your hand in boiling water or anything.

You may be mixing up "hot ice" with "dry ice", which is frozen carbon dioxide, is extremely cold, and can give you frostbite if you hold it for more than a few seconds.

escher said:
That's not right. Sodium acetate.....

Huh. Learned something today. Cool.
I wasn't confusing it with dry ice, though, I just misunderstood the reaction that made it instantly freeze.

And I don't know if he was exaggerating his reactions very much, considering he went to the hospital and got treated for burns.

escher said:
That's not right. Sodium acetate can be supercooled, meaning it's still liquid but below its freezing point, but the actual temperature of it is only room temperature. When you put a seed crystal in it to make it spontaneously crystalize, well, crystallization (freezing) is an exothermic process, meaning it releases heat, so the whole mass rapidly becomes hot. This is actually true of any crystallization. When water reaches 0 C and starts freezing into ice, it stops getting colder, but keeps emitting heat into your freezer. It has to give off energy in order to convert from a liquid at 0 C to a solid at 0 C, and that energy release warms up the environment around it.

That said, sodium acetate shouldn't be hot enough to burn, so I suspect LA Beast was intentionally overplaying his reaction for the clicks. Sodium acetate is the stuff in hand warmer packets -- it can be warm enough to be a bit uncomfortable on your skin, but it's not like you shoved your hand in boiling water or anything.

You may be mixing up "hot ice" with "dry ice", which is frozen carbon dioxide, is extremely cold, and can give you frostbite if you hold it for more than a few seconds.

Furry sites increase my chemistry knowledge again.

escher said:
That's not right. Sodium acetate can be supercooled, meaning it's still liquid but below its freezing point, but the actual temperature of it is only room temperature. When you put a seed crystal in it to make it spontaneously crystalize, well, crystallization (freezing) is an exothermic process, meaning it releases heat, so the whole mass rapidly becomes hot. This is actually true of any crystallization. When water reaches 0 C and starts freezing into ice, it stops getting colder, but keeps emitting heat into your freezer. It has to give off energy in order to convert from a liquid at 0 C to a solid at 0 C, and that energy release warms up the environment around it.

That said, sodium acetate shouldn't be hot enough to burn, so I suspect LA Beast was intentionally overplaying his reaction for the clicks. Sodium acetate is the stuff in hand warmer packets -- it can be warm enough to be a bit uncomfortable on your skin, but it's not like you shoved your hand in boiling water or anything.

You may be mixing up "hot ice" with "dry ice", which is frozen carbon dioxide, is extremely cold, and can give you frostbite if you hold it for more than a few seconds.

He may not have been. I've never stuck my hand in a jar of sodium acetate myself, so I can't say for certain that it is or isn't very hot, but I can give a good reason not to do it.

When you have a hand warmer full of sodium acetate and you start it going, the heat released mostly goes out of the pack as it crystalizes. When you have a lot more of it, the heat released per kilo of it doesn't change, but inside of that jar there's nowhere for that heat to go but into your hand.
It's the same reason you can work plaster of Paris safely, but trying to cast your hands in a block of it is likely to cost you your hands. In small batches, the plaster cools as it cures, but get enough of it together and heat builds up in the middle because it doesn't transfer to the outside fast enough.

I don't think Mr. B had his hands amputated, so it's probably not as hot as he made it out to be, but I still would not recommend doing it.

pet_nuke said:
He may not have been. I've never stuck my hand in a jar of sodium acetate myself, so I can't say for certain that it is or isn't very hot, but I can give a good reason not to do it.

When you have a hand warmer full of sodium acetate and you start it going, the heat released mostly goes out of the pack as it crystalizes. When you have a lot more of it, the heat released per kilo of it doesn't change, but inside of that jar there's nowhere for that heat to go but into your hand.
It's the same reason you can work plaster of Paris safely, but trying to cast your hands in a block of it is likely to cost you your hands. In small batches, the plaster cools as it cures, but get enough of it together and heat builds up in the middle because it doesn't transfer to the outside fast enough.

I don't think Mr. B had his hands amputated, so it's probably not as hot as he made it out to be, but I still would not recommend doing it.

So while it probably does hurt, it won't make it feel like your hand is melting, but for real the shit people do for views is sickening eating tide pods is one thing but fucking with chemicals?!

science-snake-altair said:
Furry sites increase my chemistry knowledge again.

Gotta put that post-nut clarity to good use.

bdg said:
Gotta put that post-nut clarity to good use.

I failed chemistry