How does dry ice work?
Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide. A block of dry ice has a surface temperature of -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit (-78.5 degrees C). Dry ice also has the very nice feature of sublimation — as it breaks down, it turns directly into carbon dioxide gas rather than a liquid. The super-cold temperature and the sublimation feature make dry ice great for refrigeration. For example, if you want to send something frozen across the country, you can pack it in dry ice. It will be frozen when it reaches its destination, and there will be no messy liquid left over like you would have with normal ice. Many people are familiar with liquid nitrogen, which boils at -320 degrees F (-196 degrees C). Liquid nitrogen is fairly messy and difficult to handle. So why is nitrogen a liquid while carbon dioxide is a solid? This difference is caused by the solid-liquid-gas features of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. We are all familiar with the solid-liquid-gas behavior of water. We know that at
