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Max Williams
Max Williams
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Does extreme cold make **anything****everything** extremely brittle?

First of all, I'm genuinely sorry if this question isn't "serious" enough for this forum!

A common cliche in movies and tv is that a very tough object (eg the villain) is frozen, and then hit with something, shattering into a million pieces.

I've seen a demo of a flower being put into liquid nitrogen, then being crumbled, but a flower is a very delicate object to start off with. If I take a leg of lamb (for example) out of the freezer, I don't feel like it's in any danger of shattering into a million bits (unlike my foot if i were to drop it).

So, is the whole "cold = brittle" thing just movie bullcrap? Or is there anything to it? Sticking with the leg of lamb example: is there a temperature to which a leg of lamb could be dropped that would make the leg of lamb prone to shattering?

EDIT - i just realised that the question title could be read as "Is there anything which is rendered extremely brittle by extreme cold?". Obviously there are some things, eg flowers. Hence the title change.

Does extreme cold make **anything** extremely brittle?

First of all, I'm genuinely sorry if this question isn't "serious" enough for this forum!

A common cliche in movies and tv is that a very tough object (eg the villain) is frozen, and then hit with something, shattering into a million pieces.

I've seen a demo of a flower being put into liquid nitrogen, then being crumbled, but a flower is a very delicate object to start off with. If I take a leg of lamb (for example) out of the freezer, I don't feel like it's in any danger of shattering into a million bits (unlike my foot if i were to drop it).

So, is the whole "cold = brittle" thing just movie bullcrap? Or is there anything to it? Sticking with the leg of lamb example: is there a temperature to which a leg of lamb could be dropped that would make the leg of lamb prone to shattering?

Does extreme cold make **everything** extremely brittle?

First of all, I'm genuinely sorry if this question isn't "serious" enough for this forum!

A common cliche in movies and tv is that a very tough object (eg the villain) is frozen, and then hit with something, shattering into a million pieces.

I've seen a demo of a flower being put into liquid nitrogen, then being crumbled, but a flower is a very delicate object to start off with. If I take a leg of lamb (for example) out of the freezer, I don't feel like it's in any danger of shattering into a million bits (unlike my foot if i were to drop it).

So, is the whole "cold = brittle" thing just movie bullcrap? Or is there anything to it? Sticking with the leg of lamb example: is there a temperature to which a leg of lamb could be dropped that would make the leg of lamb prone to shattering?

EDIT - i just realised that the question title could be read as "Is there anything which is rendered extremely brittle by extreme cold?". Obviously there are some things, eg flowers. Hence the title change.

Source Link
Max Williams
Max Williams
  • 1.3k
  • 1
  • 10
  • 14

Does extreme cold make **anything** extremely brittle?

First of all, I'm genuinely sorry if this question isn't "serious" enough for this forum!

A common cliche in movies and tv is that a very tough object (eg the villain) is frozen, and then hit with something, shattering into a million pieces.

I've seen a demo of a flower being put into liquid nitrogen, then being crumbled, but a flower is a very delicate object to start off with. If I take a leg of lamb (for example) out of the freezer, I don't feel like it's in any danger of shattering into a million bits (unlike my foot if i were to drop it).

So, is the whole "cold = brittle" thing just movie bullcrap? Or is there anything to it? Sticking with the leg of lamb example: is there a temperature to which a leg of lamb could be dropped that would make the leg of lamb prone to shattering?