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FOUR HUNDRED DEGREES
BELOW ZERO
By RAYMOND FRANCIS YATES
I N the wintertime, when the mercury
approaches the much-dreaded zero
mark, we don extra wraps, cover
our ears, and exclaim, "Goodness,
what a terribly cold day it is!"
But let us go on down the Fahrenheit
temperature scale until we reach a point
that is 400 degrees below the markwhere
frost really bites our fingers and
toes, and we will be in a new realm,
almost devoid of heat and in which all
states of matter are contracted into
solids.
In this extreme degree of coldness,
there is nothing upon earth that cannot
be robbed of heat, whether it is a piece
of tin or a piece of ice from the exact
location of the north pole. A tin cup
may be frozen and contracted to such a
degree that if it is struck a sharp blow,
it will break into pieces much as a
Two Dewar Flasks Filled with Liquid Air
So violently does the fluid seek the warmth of the surrounding room,
that a thick coat of frost forms on the beakers instantly, making them resemble
fancy sundaes.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS C0PY8I0HT ,818 BY SAY A8ANCIB V
73
china cup is shattered by a jar or fall.
In the production of low temperatures,
the scientist has learned some of nature's
most cryptic secrets—secrets that have
yielded only to the determined and undiminished
attacks of great minds.
Behind the closed doors of the laboratory,
temperatures so low have been
produced that the very air breathed has
been frozen to a solid mass! Every
known gas has been brought from the
invisible to the visible, by coldness so
intense.
By the scientific mind, all matter,
whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, is regarded
as being composed of myriads of
infinitesimal particles called molecules.
These molecules are all in a state of
rapid vibration and the degree of this
vibration determines the temperature of
the particular substance formed by the
molecules. Thus, if the molecules
are vibrating extremely
rapidly, we say that the substance
is hot, and if they are
caused to vibrate less rapidly,
we say the substance is "cold".
But, there is no such a thing
existing as "coldness", as this
condition is only so named
when there is little heat present.
Ice has some heat in it
but not as much as substances
at a more normal temperature,
hence, we call it "cold".
When water is boiled, part
of it passes away as vapor—
its molecules rise and pass off
into the atmosphere. If we
cool this vapor, it returns again
to its natural condition, water.
Thus we see that it is a revers­
ible operation, and this is true of
any substance upon our planet,