Cold Weather and Spit, an experiment you can try at home!

Cold weather. Most folks don’t like it, but there are some cool things that happen when it is cold outside. For one, it has to be cold in order for it to snow.

I spent some time living in a very cold environment back in the early 1990s. I remember one night the prediction was for temperatures to go as low as -35. That’s cold. Colder than I had ever experienced growing up near the east coast. So of course, the thing to do was to go outside and see what it felt like.

Luckily I had some friends who were more accustomed to that kind of extreme cold. They told me (and perhaps I also saw it on the news) that if you are out in that kind of cold you will get frostbite in a matter of minutes (like 5 minutes) if you have any exposed skin. Now, I had a coat and a hat and gloves, etc… but what about my face, eyes and nose? We had to devise make-shift masks out of t-shirts to wrap around our stupid heads so we could go outside and experience the cold without repercussion.

What I remember upon stepping out onto the dry sidewalk was that every step we took squeaked. I’m not sure if it was the rubber soles of our shoes or the sidewalk itself that made the sound, but it sounded like we were walking on snow – but the ground was dry.

I remember inhaling and then squeezing my nostrils to break the ice inside! No kidding. The insides of our noses froze. That was cold.

Then I wondered, “What happens if I spit?” Our spit did not freeze before hitting the ground, but it did freeze as soon as it hit the ground. So at what temperature would spit freeze before hitting the ground? For this and other answers, we turn to the internet. Provider of all things useless and entertaining. Come family, gather around the computer and bask in its warm glowing, warming glow.

From a Q and A session held between school students and scientists at the South Pole via the internet:

What are the warmest day temperatures in the summmer at the South Pole?

Dr. John Carlstrom writes in Feb 2000:The warmest day temperature ever is +7.5F. The warmest this year has been -20F. It is now getting much colder and has already been -40F this summer. The coldest day on record -118F.

Will your spit freeze as soon as it leaves your mouth?

Janice says: "When I was at the South Pole, the temperature was -28 degrees Celcius (-20 degrees Fahrenheit) and my spit did not freeze as soon as it left my mouth. In fact, it took a few seconds before it froze as it lay on the ground. Yes, I was on my hands and knees in the snow observing and touching wet spit on the ground. "

“However, over the winter, we are told, it can get cold and quiet enough that if you simply exhale through your mouth, you can hear the water vapor in your breath freeze.”

Close to an answer….Let’s delve deeper. More on freezing spit –

This very same question was posed to some scientists at NOVA, and they said that they think spit will freeze before hitting the ground at -50 or colder. Hmmm… that’s almost a definitive answer, but not quite.

In a story about Alaska, Jack London wrote that his character estimated the temperature to be at least 75 degrees below zero because not only did his spit freeze before hitting the ground, it audibly cracked at the point that it froze, which was only a few inches from his lips.

Well, he could have just been guessing, we need first-hand experience.

Aha!
From another blogger at this address (http://five-thirteen.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_five-thirteen_archive.html), and in response to a cold wave hitting the east coast (presumably last year or during a previous winter) I read the following (*note: the author made the comment that “it hasn’t been below zero in Boston in hundreds of years” which isn’t true, but if the rest of what he’s saying is true, its pretty interesting, and possibly the answer we were looking for):

“…But seriously, east coasters, come talk to me when it hits -72 degrees, and we'll talk. Yes, I've been outside in -72. I changed a frozen car battery in -72. You have to go outside and make sure that you start your car every hour for about twenty minutes or the fluids freeze, including the battery acid. I learned that the hard way. Let me tell you something, you don't want to have to thaw out a frozen car battery in your apartment. It takes a long time, and you'll be tempted to use the oven, and that's a whole 'nother story. Also, leather gloves are an excellent insulator against electric charges from batteries when you accidentally connect the positive with the negative bolts when your wrench slips and touches both simultaneously. Again, another story.

When it's that cold, your spit freezes before it's even halfway to the ground (not only did I try it, I marvelled that the spit crackled through the air as the ice cracked and re-froze until it shattered on the ground and the liquid inside then immediately froze upon exposure), but any exposed skin will become frostbitten almost instantly upon contact with the cold. And it's not the slow, gradual frostbite where you don't really notice it, or your cheeks start feeling a little bit burned or raw. It feels like the wind is using your face for a pincushion. Shit, it's so cold that not only does the hairs inside your nose freeze solid, you're actually in danger of freezing the inside of your throat and lungs if you're not careful enough to warm up your scarf and breathe through that. Slowly.

I remember talking to a tour guy in Jamaica about that winter, when it was 110 in the shade (just for extreme temperature comparison, doing easy math, that's a 180 difference. If you used the temperature of freezing (32 degrees farenheit) as a starting point, adding 180 degrees would make your blood boil. Literally). He asked how cold it got in Illinois. He asked "Is that colder than my refridgerator?" We answered that it's colder than his freezer. "How long would I survive dressed like dis in dat weather?" (He was wearing nothing but swimming trunks).

I responded, "You'd be dead in five minutes."

By File Boy