Liquid Nitrogen is fun stuff!!!!

So today was a pretty normal day for me. Went to class and went through the normal routine. Then came my Engineering 100 honors class. It was great, I love this class. I work in a group of 5 people including myself trying to develop a thermoelectric device. So far we have made 3 different materials and now we are constructing different devices to find out which one will generate the most power. So anyway, today I was working with liquid nitrogen and dry ice because we have to create a temperature gradient in order for the device to output electricity. So on one side it is hot and on the other it is cold. (This is where the liquid nitrogen comes in) So I have been working with liquid nitrogen for about two weeks now, and I have never done anything like this until now.

I was holding the beaker with my sweatshirt sleeve in-between my hand and the beaker so that when I was holding the beaker, my hand would not freeze off. What's that you say? Should have used gloves? Well, the problem with gloves is that the plastic will freeze on your gloves thus holding cold on your finger longer than if the nitrogen were to just bounce off of your finger. So I was pouring the liquid nitrogen from the container into a small beaker and the beaker filled up faster than I expected and it spilled onto my sweatshirt. This made my sweatshirt go instantly stiff and transfer the 73 degree Kelvin (-321 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature to my finger. I set down the beaker and pulled my hand out, but it was too late. I had given myself frostbite...I have no feeling in the tip of my right index finger. It hasn't turned black yet, so I don't think it will. I hope it will come back soon, but we will have to see.

The rest of my day? Came home ate dinner and then went to half price books with Ashley, Jacob, Robb, and Katherine to look for something interesting to read and maybe find a white elephant gift for this weekend. Came back home and worked on homework till now. I got distracted from my homework earlier tonight and found a lot of people that I knew on thefacebook.com. You should check it out. Now back to more homework and studying.