Polar Vortex: Top Six Experiments in Freezing Cold Temperatures

The ice cold spell which has gripped the US during the Polar Vortex has continued to take hold as all 50 states recorded temperatures below freezing.

While people have been warned to take care as New York, Boston and even Hell experience record freezing temperatures, many have used it as an opportunity to experiment.

As the US braces itself to deal with more temperatures colder than the Antarctica and Mars, the IB Times UK has collected some of the ways people have been making the most out of the harsh conditions.

Freezing Bubbles

In Michigan and Minnesota, where the temperature has reached as low as -30C (-21F) in places, people are able to be forever blowing bubbles until they freeze over, creating them into almost see-through marbles.

The soap in the bubbles allows them to keep their form until the heat from your fingers melt them.

Frozen Eggs

In the UK, one cliché is to show how it is possible to fry an egg where the temperatures soar.

In the US, the Weather Channel showed how easy a person could get frostbite in the extreamely cold conditions by freezing an egg to a pan in just five minutes.

Boiling Water

One of the most popular experiments being conducted across the US is to show just how quickly booing water turns into snow when it meets the freezing air.

If you want to add a bit of fun to this test, try using a water gun to create a stream of the frozen chunks of ice, like this man in Rochester, Minnesota.

(Warning: There have been several reports of this experiment going drastically wrong and people ending up with burning themselves, as this video, which contains some strong language, will testify).

Urinating in Freezing Conditions

Some people just could not wait to boil a kettle before seeing how hot liquid would react in the plummeting temperatures, so instead took the next logical step.

Also taking place in Minnesota (it really has been cold there) this man decided to see what would happen when someone urinates in -27C.

It basically produces the same results but with added yellow snow (Warning: contains strong language and wee)

Freezing T-Shirts

Another old favourite of the news channels is to soak a t-shirt and see just how long it will take to become rock solid in the cold.

The clothing becomes so frozen over that the news anchor presenting the piece even joked it "kinda hurt" when it fell over and hit his leg.

Trampoline

While not technically an experiment, one man in Iowa's short film of him jumping onto a frozen trampoline really hit the zeitgeist, being viewed tens of thousands of times online after it was picked up by a local news network.