What’s the difference between ice and snow? Aren’t they both frozen water?
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Ice is 90% water, 10% air.
Snow is 10% water, 90% air.
If you were to put ice in a cup to the top and let it melt, the cup will be 90% full when it melts.
If you were to put snow in a cup to the top and let it melt, the cup will be 10% full, assuming you lightly place the snow in the cup without packing it down.
Ice is 90% water, 10% air.
Snow is 10% water, 90% air.
If you were to put ice in a cup to the top and let it melt, the cup will be 90% full when it melts.
If you were to put snow in a cup to the top and let it melt, the cup will be 10% full, assuming you lightly place the snow in the cup without packing it down.
It’s based on how it forms. Ice is usually a chunk/body of water all freezing together at once. Snow has a starting point of ice that grows bigger as moisture comes into contact with and freezes. If this happens slow enough then moisture contact will be more likely at points sticking out so you get air gaps in between the points of contact where freezing/growth is occurring.
Once the water is frozen it won’t bond/crystalize with a neighboring snowflake unless some melting occurs.
So snow is ice, but it’s a grown ice crystal with more air gaps than a frozen droplet of rain.
It’s based on how it forms. Ice is usually a chunk/body of water all freezing together at once. Snow has a starting point of ice that grows bigger as moisture comes into contact with and freezes. If this happens slow enough then moisture contact will be more likely at points sticking out so you get air gaps in between the points of contact where freezing/growth is occurring.
Once the water is frozen it won’t bond/crystalize with a neighboring snowflake unless some melting occurs.
So snow is ice, but it’s a grown ice crystal with more air gaps than a frozen droplet of rain.
I guess the true ELI5 is more comparable to scrambled eggs and boiled eggs both being a fried egg, but prepared differently makes one fluffy and one super solid.
I guess the true ELI5 is more comparable to scrambled eggs and boiled eggs both being a fried egg, but prepared differently makes one fluffy and one super solid.
Spaghetti and macaroni and lasagna noodles are all the same chemistry but different micro/macro structure. Same for ice vs snow.
Same atoms, different arrangement.
They’re both ice, but snow is ice that has formed into tiny specs of flaky crystals with sticking-out-bits. Those sticking-out-bits on snowflakes prevent the ice crystals from fitting together tightly. A pile of snowflakes has lots and lots of air gaps between the snowflakes because the sticky-out-bits get hung up on each other. A layer of snow is about 90 percent air trapped between the sticky-out-bits. That’s why snowstorms can create very deep layers of snow. The amount of water that would make 1 cm of rain makes 10 cm of snow.
More interesting is this – what is the difference between snow and rain? High in the atmosphere it’s always cold (think WW2 bomber pilots wearing thick furry jackets even in summer). The cloud water vapor condenses around dusty particles into a frozen crystal with sticky-out-bits. Then it starts dropping. As it drops it gets into warmer air. If the air further down is warm enough, those ice crystals melt into water drops. If the air further down isn’t warm enough, they stay as ice crystals.
Basically rain *is* snow… that melted on the way down to the ground.
Spaghetti and macaroni and lasagna noodles are all the same chemistry but different micro/macro structure. Same for ice vs snow.
Same atoms, different arrangement.
It’s essentially the difference between a board and sawdust. Both are wood… But the board had a lot more connections recording the structure. Snow is just lots of separate pieces.
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