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by wickedwillie on May 28th, 2005

wickedwillie

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Why is snow a good insulator?

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  • by BoundSyco on May 31st, 2005

    BoundSyco

    Snow is a good insulator due to the crystalline structure of the snow flakes themselves. Snow flakes are very complex in structure, with many hallow areas in the structure in which air gets trapped. Air itself has the ability to get very very cold, while ice (snow flakes) typically can only reach a temperature of 0 celcius. Because the ice only drops to 0, and doesn't get much colder than that, the air that gets trapped in the hallow areas will stay around the same temperature as the ice. Thus, the temperature of the air inside the ice stays at a higher temperature than the surrounding air. Thus, if you make a hallowed out area inside a snow bank, the average air temperature will not drop below 0. If you fill the space with the a warm body (such as a human) then the bodies heat is only trying to raise the temperature from 0, not something like -40 or -50 depending on the wind chill and other factors.

    Interesting factoid: Snow flakes are said to exist in 1.4 or 1.6 dimensions. This is because they are the closest known object to a mobius strip. The crystalline structure is so intricate that is difficult to say that a snow flake has any "sides", but is instead more of a one dimensional line wrapped around itself in a three dimensional world. The only way we can see the structure of a snow flake is by observing the air packets trapped inside.

    Comments

    • Gets off to a good start, but then goes into misinormation. Ice can and does cool to well below 0 deg. C.

      Glenn Blaylock

      by Glenn Blaylock on October 6th, 2005

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