9 cool things about snow

1. Snow is Not White - it is clear and colourless.
“The complex structure of snow crystals results in countless tiny surfaces from which visible light is efficiently reflected. What little sunlight is absorbed by snow is absorbed uniformly over the wavelengths of visible light thus giving snow its white appearance.”  (National Snow and Ice Data Center)

2. 12% of the earth’s surface is ice or snow. 80% of all the freshwater on earth is frozen as ice or snow. 

3. All snowflakes have 6 sides.  
“The oxygen atom has a particularly strong attraction to the electron clouds of the two hydrogen atoms and pulls them closer. This leaves the two hydrogen ends more positively charged, and the center of the “V” more negatively charged. When other water molecules “brush up” against this growing snowflake, strong forces between the negatively charged and positively charged parts of different particles cause them to join together in a very specific three-dimensional pattern with a six-sided symmetry. Each water molecule that joins the snowflake reflects this pattern until eventually we can see its macroscopic six-sided shape.” ( Learner.org)

4. Identical? "it is indeed extremely unlikely that two complex snowflakes will look exactly alike. Nano-snowflakes can be exactly alike. Small snow crystals can look alike.Larger, complex snowflakes are all different. (www.snowcrystlas.com)

5.  Snow is a mineral, just like diamonds and salt.

6  At the center of almost every snow crystal is a tiny mote of dust, which can be anything from volcanic ash to a particle from outer space. "As the crystal grows around that speck, its shape is altered by humidity, temperature, and wind; the history of a flake’s descent to Earth is recorded in its intricate design".(http://discovermagazine.com/2008)

7. Freshly fallen snow is typically 90 to 95 percent air, which is what makes it such a good thermal insulator.

8. Don’t eat the yellow snow but also don't eat red snow, either: “Watermelon snow,” ruddy-tinted drifts that smell like fresh watermelon, gets its color from a species of pigmented algae that grows in ice. The snow tastes great, but eating it will give you the runs.

9  Too much snow can drive a person crazy. Pibloktoq, a little-understood hysteria seen in people living in the Arctic, can cause a wide range of symptoms, including echolalia (senseless repetition of overheard words) and running around naked in the snow.

Do you know some other cool things about snow?

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