See what happens when a spoon of liquid nitrogen is dropped into a bowl of gasoline. The liquid nitrogen bounces around the bowl inside of the gasoline in a clump and then bursts outwards into the air. It looks like a little ghost, running around in circles trying to escape.
I'm glad the little liquid nitrogen ghost finally found its way out of that bowl. It was clearly experiencing some anxiety in there. This experiment is so much fun to watch!
At IFLScience, Danielle Andrew explains what we're looking at:
The movement of the liquid nitrogen drop is caused by the Leidenfrost effect, which states that when a liquid (in this case liquid nitrogen) comes into contact with another liquid that has a much higher boiling point than its own (the gasoline), it instantly produces a separating vapor.
As the much hotter gasoline (usually room temperature) hits the liquid nitrogen at between –210°C and –196°C (–346°F and –320°F), vapor produced by the rapidly boiling nitrogen causes it to effectively hover above the gasoline. As the liquid nitrogen hits the side of the bowl, it boils again, flinging it off in another direction before it eventually evaporates.
Here's another one:
