On 9/6/2011 3:04 AM, Invisible wrote:

> I see what you did there.
>
> I've got a box of hand warmers at home. They contain a super-saturated
> solution (of what I don't know). Once you provide a nucleation point,
> the whole lot crystallises within a few seconds. It also gets quite warm
> in the process. (This is what makes it good for warming your hands.)

Sodium acetate. I've made my own countless times in my life. And 
recently made a big enough batch to create the super-saturated solution 
(actually melted crystals) to crystallize. Very cool to watch. Drop a 
tiny sodium acetate crystal in, and it grows out from that and warms the 
container nicely.

-- 
~Mike

Post a reply to this message