When a quarter in pushed into dry ice, a strange thing happens. The quarter starts to quiver. It is a normal room temperature quarter. I did nothing to the quarter. This is not a trick but really happens. The evaporating CO2 creates a small air current causing the quarters to vibrate.
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1 Comment
When the quarter is inserted in the dry ice, the ice starts to melt in contact with the quarter. As the coin is not perfectly vertical, it bends as the ice melt. Consequently, after a few seconds, only one face (the bottom of this face) is in contact with the ice. As the metal is far more conductive than the air (for the calories) the ice in contact with the quarter melts and evaporate quicker than on the over side. It causes an increase of the pressure and it pushes the quarter to the over side where the phenomenon repeats.
Finally, the movement find an equilibrium in periodic oscillations.
PS : Please excuse my english but i'm french ^^
Quentin
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