Boiling water challenge sends at least 8 people to hospital during polar vortex

WSBTV ^ | 2/11/19 | Najja Parker

[Libloather]

Have you seen videos of people throwing boiling water into the air to watch it freeze instantly? It’s the latest viral challenge, and it’s sending people to the hospital.

Within the last view weeks, parts of the United States have been affected by the polar vortex, which occurs when circulating winds from the northern pole travel southward and cause below freezing temperatures.

To test just how cold the weather has been, folks have been tossing boiling water into the sky to turn it into tiny ice crystals.

Eight people who took part in the challenge have been treated at the burn center of Chicago's Loyola University Medical Center, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

The patients treated range in age from three to 53, and they’ve had injuries to their feet, arms, hands and face with varying degrees of burns.

[BipolarBob]

It was a buddys. Not mine.

[bubbacluck]

I’m waiting for the inevitable, “Sulfuric Acid Challenge”.

I believe they are already doing this in London.

[Freedom4US]

It does, but most of it evaporates.

I tried it when I was a little kid, using two ice trays and my parents freezer. Boiling water/hot water will make ice cubes before cold water. But, they are only about 1/4 the size of the regular cubes.

[sparklite2]

"Hot water can in fact freeze faster than cold water for a wide range of experimental conditions.  This phenomenon is extremely counterintuitive, and surprising even to most scientists, but it is in fact real.  It has been seen and studied in numerous experiments.  While this phenomenon has been known "For centuries, and was described by Aristotle, Bacon, and Descartes [1–3], it was not introduced to the modern scientific community until 1969, by a Tanzanian high school pupil named Mpemba.  Both the early scientific history of this effect, and the story of Mpemba's rediscovery of it, are interesting in their own right — Mpemba's story in particular providing a dramatic parable against making snap judgements about what is impossible"

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html

[Do_Tar]

Now what would be the challenge in that? /s

[jmacusa]

The end result of protecting people from their own stupidity is to live in a world full of fools.

[databoss]

Don’t piss into the wind is a simple phrase lost on many....

[NoCmpromiz]

Never pee into the wind.

Or on an electric fence...

[SMGFan]

You should put some ice on that.

[xp38]

Ok thanks to you and other posts for the education.

[DannyTN]

Stupid human fads.

I wonder how many people the ice bucket challenges have sent to the hospital.

[Pollster1]

Tide Pods, condoms up the nose, drivers hopping out of a moving car to dance, and now pouring boiling water on themselves. This is the generation that loves
Alexandria Oblivious-Commie, and these stories make it obvious just how well she represents her people.