[penguicon-general] Thermite versus Liquid Nitrogen

[Daniel Nance]

The heat potential for both substances are way different and that's the real
factor that needs to be considered here. Just because one thing is way
colder than another doesn't mean that it couldn't absorb a massive amount of
energy.

Based on what I could find on the web, molten thermite probably has a heat
potential of between 750 to 930 calories per gram (depending on where you
look) while it takes about 50 calories per gram to evaporate liquid
nitrogen. Therefore, you should need about 15 to 18.6 times more mass of
liquid nitrogen than thermite in order to have enough to absorb all of that
energy and lessen the risk of melting the container.

Daniel Nance
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