Snow
It has been snowing for more than 12 hours now without a single break. Sure, the snow has been light at times, but it's an impressive sight none the less. It has been so cold that it's coming down in individual flakes, quickly, so peering out the window, you see what appears to be a steady stream of white rain. It's a cruel paradox. The ski conditions are perfect, but it is just too cold to ski. If it were warmer, the snow wouldn't be as good. I guess it really doesn't matter because I'm sure skiing would inflame my iliotibial band even more, but you can't really look outside without wanting to play. I don't really know how much snow we've gotten because they keep plowing the roads, so you see either an inch or several feet when you go out. I think we have more than a foot in the untouched fields nearby, but I don't really want to test it. Running would have been so peaceful today. I wish I could go. My leg still hurts though. I've apparently developed a severe case. At least I can still go swimming.
Yesterday, we (Jud, Isabelle, and I) decided we wanted to know how fast water would freeze outside. It was -11 deg F at the time. I had some Gatorade, and I wanted to include it in the experiment. We had two identical plastic Clemson mugs (souvenirs from old football games) to use as containers. We put a cup of tap water in one and a cup of Gatorade in the other. We left the cups outside and checked them once every 10 minutes or so. The water formed a thin film of ice after around 40 minutes. We missed the 50 minute mark. After an hour, we brought the cups back in. Both the water and Gatorade had formed slushy consistencies and had thin layers of ice at the top and along the sides of the cup. The Gatorade had slightly less ice, but the difference was negligible for all intents and purposes. I guess if I do a long run in the cold, I can't necessarily rely on my Gatorade. At least I'll know it's cold.
Anyhow, the snow is supposed to continue until tomorrow afternoon, with total accumulations of 10-16 inches. It's a good thing our town has plenty of snow plows!
Yesterday, we (Jud, Isabelle, and I) decided we wanted to know how fast water would freeze outside. It was -11 deg F at the time. I had some Gatorade, and I wanted to include it in the experiment. We had two identical plastic Clemson mugs (souvenirs from old football games) to use as containers. We put a cup of tap water in one and a cup of Gatorade in the other. We left the cups outside and checked them once every 10 minutes or so. The water formed a thin film of ice after around 40 minutes. We missed the 50 minute mark. After an hour, we brought the cups back in. Both the water and Gatorade had formed slushy consistencies and had thin layers of ice at the top and along the sides of the cup. The Gatorade had slightly less ice, but the difference was negligible for all intents and purposes. I guess if I do a long run in the cold, I can't necessarily rely on my Gatorade. At least I'll know it's cold.
Anyhow, the snow is supposed to continue until tomorrow afternoon, with total accumulations of 10-16 inches. It's a good thing our town has plenty of snow plows!
posted by megan at
11:50 PM
5 Comments:
Did the water and the Gatorade start out at the same temperature? If not, so much for the comparison!
By
Anonymous, at 1:12 PM
They were at approximately the same temperature. The water may have been slightly warmer.
By
megan, at 3:17 PM
And you call yourself an engineer! What kind of scientific method do they teach at Cornell these days?
By
Anonymous, at 8:05 PM
You apparently don't know engineers well. We often speak the language of "close enough." Anyhow, I actually learned engineering at Clemson, not Cornell, as you should have determined by the comment about using plastic Clemson cups. The amount of energy required to take a water-based liquid from room temperature to freezing is negligble compared to the amount of energy required to freeze it. Combine this with the fact that the temperatures were within 3 deg F of each other, and you can see the small variations were insignificant. Wind would have been a much bigger consideration, but we handled that problem by using cups that were only 1/3 full, placing the cups near each other, and choosing a day with calm winds. Anyhow, what's the point of measuring the temperatures when we had no way of measuring the percentage of liquid that had changed phase? This was in no way a serious experiment. We were really hoping the water would freeze very quickly. The Gatorade was an after thought. I was hoping there would be a significant difference, and there wasn't. Seriously. You pick on small temperature differences when there were so many other problems with this experiment, it's not worth listing? Using the town's hard tap water is a bigger problem than the difference. If I remember chemistry correctly, every impurity in the water would have lowered the freezing point.
By
megan, at 11:40 PM
Megan...gottcha!! Momma (I love you)
By
Anonymous, at 10:25 AM
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