Learn more physics!
Q:
Does one inch of snow equal 1 inch of water? If not, why?
- Meghann (age 8)
Jarrettsville Elementary, Maryland
A:
Meghann -
Nope! Think about snow - it's all light and fluffy, right? Well,
the reason it's so fluffy is because it's got a lot of air in there,
all mixed in with the water crystals. You may have seen pictures of the
pretty patterns of snowflakes - well, there's air in the little holes
in those snowflakes too. When you melt the snow into water, all that
air goes out of it. (Pure water doesn't have very much air in it.) And
once you've taken all that air away, the melted water will take up a
lot less space than the snow did to begin with.
-Tamara
(published on 10/22/2007)
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