A melting snow query.

[brenda]

If you have a bucket which is filled to the top with snow,( not frozen water), when the snow melts how full will the bucket be.? Does it depend on what sort of snow it is ? Asked by my grandson aged 10 , I have no idea .So help please.TIA

[paddywak]

If I remember from my schooldays (a long time ago ) the ratio of snow to water is 10:1

[brenda]

paddywak -thanks for your answer please , please would you explain it to me. Sorry to be so thick.

[ChuckFickens]

Why not get your grandson to do a simple experiment and find out for himself.

http://astro.uchicago...thpole.edu/flaky.html

[Androcles]

Snow flakes are "solid" ie a form of ice, with a large quantity of air between the arms of the flake. When it melts, the structure is lost as it changes from solid to liquid phase, which takes up much less space.....

[brenda]

Thanks all. chuck when he comes tomorrow wii do it sounds loads of fun .Brenda.

[paddywak]

As androcles says snow is frozen wate but it actually takes up a much greater volume then it would as water so that a container with 10 inch of snow in it would thaw into about 1inch of water. Chucks idea is the best, after all we learn better from experiance then any other way

[Clanad]

As a commercial pilot nearly all my adult life, one of the first paying jobs I had flying aircraft here in the western U.S. was for a hydrologist in the back country of the northern Rocky Mountains measuring the snowpack. We used a small Super Cub aircraft on skis (like this: http://www.super-cub-...-cub-kits-on-skis.jpg )and made numerous flights throughout the winter. By we, I refer to the licensed hydrologist that always accompanied me.

I found from him (sometimes a her) that the water content of snow is highly variable. The wind velocity and temperature during the snowfall is most the controlling of factors. Additionally, the source of the moisture forming the snow has a lot of influence. The snow that falls on the lee (eastern) side of the Rockies tends to be "dryer" than say snow falling on the windward (west) side of the Cascades or other Pacific coastal mountains. The snow content can easily vary from around .04 to .10 water to snow ratio.
Here's a site that may be of interest (applicable to the U.S. of course):
http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/index.html

By the way, most snow pack measurements today are done remotely through radio or satellite transmitted data... but it was realy fun while it lasted and besides, they were willing to pay me for it...

[KARL]

Snow collapses into progressively denser forms, both when the temperature rises toward freezing point, and also under its own weight. The polar Ice caps are almost entirely made of water that fell as snow but ultimately was converted to ice through this process - there is still snow on the top but most of it (hundreds and hundreds of metres thick) is completely solid ice so pure that it looks blue once it has flowed to the edges and broken off into icebergs. Thus, your son's question has no clear, single answer (unless you want to be simplistic). When solid ice melts, it turns to water of approximately 90% the volume of the ice (i.e. denser), but even that is dependent on the temperature of the water. Water is densest (i.e. of least volume) at 4 degrees Celsius and increases in volume as the temperature falls and also as it rises away from 4 degrees.

[brenda]

Thank you all once again ---found all this so very interesting. Brenda.

[modeller]

A fortnight ago the snow was dry and powdery, which makes poor snowballs and snowmen. That type of snow contains very little water and you would need about 20 buckets of snow to get one bucket of water. The snow we are now getting is wetter , sticks together more and would give you a bucket of water from 10 buckets of snow.
In Canada they have snow clearing machines that blow their dry snow off the roads . They were tried out in this country and with our snow they were useless, they clogged up within minutes.

[brenda]

Had noticed the constituency of the snow was different from time to time but hadn't realised that the water content made it so . Thank you for the info.

[modeller]

I understand that the Eskimos have more than 40 different words for snow . So when rail companies say " It's the wrong sort of snow for their equipment " it's not as stupid as it sounds. I remember in the army we use to melt ice to make tea and a bucket of crushed ice made about a third of a bucket of water. You can test that out using ice cubes. I don't know if the temperature of the ice affects its water content.

[brenda]

Thank you modeller--have just learned something else.Brenda.

[Old_Geezer]

I understand from TV's QI programme that the umpteen words for snow thing is incorrect.

Despite the answer being given I'd add that it depends on how compact the snow was. It may be 10 to 1 (for all I know) for snow freshly fallen, but I feel sure a bucketful of the compacted suff in the road outside my house, would result in a more water.

[modeller]

But if its compacted it is no longer snow and has totally different characteristics. You are right of course it would give a lot more water as does ice or slush for that matter.

[modeller]

I don't know how many words Eskimos have for snow but all snowflakes are different in size , shape and density and once fallen these characteristics would constantly change with changing temperature and conditions. Therefore there could be many words to describe it.

[brenda]

Thanks again each of you. Did the experiment , with my grandson -- no result yet , still freezing , so no thaw.!!!

[brenda]

Result of expt. , when the snow melted the bucket was approx 1/3 full of water.
Am now going to apply for the Nobel prize in Science. But seriously, was a lot of fun. Thanks again all.Brenda.