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This is But Why, a podcast for curious kids from Vermont Public Radio. I'm Jane Lindholm. This episode comes out just one day after the official first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. So we thought it would be an appropriate time to answer some cold weather questions. And if you're among our listeners in the Southern Hemisphere, happy summer!
A little bit later in the show, we're going to be answering questions about how snowflakes form and why snow is white. But first, let's go on a little field trip. Just a couple of miles from my office in Vermont is the global headquarters for a company called Burton Snowboards. If you like to hit the slopes on a snowboard when the snow is flying, you've probably heard of the company.
They have a guy there with a pretty funny job title. They call him the Mad Scientist. When a question came in to But Why Global headquarters about snowboards, that's who I went to talk to.
My name is Chris Doyle. Everybody calls me Doyle. I am the rapid prototype engineer here at Burton Snowboards. This is the Craig Kelly Rapid Prototyping Lab, where we have four different types of high-tech 3D printing equipment. And that is the noises that you hear. The whirring noise in the background is the Connex 500, which makes all kinds of new stuff for us. For instance, goggle prototypes.
bottoms of boots, buttons, zipper pulls, badges, board prototypes that we just want to look at. It's amazing what you can make out of these machines in here, and that's what we do here. Doyle, I was told I had to call you a mad scientist, and I want to point out to our listeners, you're not even wearing shoes, so you look like a mad scientist. It helps me to think. My feet being free, I don't know. I've had meeting requests in here where they say, can you please make sure that Doyle has shoes on? But I kind of didn't think you'd care.
No, it's radio. We don't care. Yeah, very good. So you wanted to show me the 3D printer before we get into our questions. The ConX 500 is the true 3D printer in the room in that it prints liquid plastic. And we can make multiple hardness plastic parts of anything that we really want. This one's the one where if an engineer has an idea and is working on something, they can work on it in the morning. Give me the file, go to lunch, go on their bike ride. I'll print it up for them and have it ready for a 2 o'clock meeting.
So if I had a drawing of what I thought were going to be the coolest goggles for going snowboarding or skiing this winter, and I drew them, and they had designs on them, and I told you what colors they were and what size I wanted them to be, I could give that to you, and you could...
with the help of this machine make me that pair of goggles? The intermediate step would be the engineer that turns that design into a 3D CAD model. Explain what a CAD model is. An intermediate means the step in between. Correct. The step in between. CAD stands for Computer Aided Design. Let's skip the aided part. It's just computer design.
So your design, your sketch, your drawing goes to the engineer and then the engineer using a program such as we use Siemens NX here at Burton and that engineer will turn that design into a model that has a language that this machine understands. And it's kind of fun. It's a fun name for it. It's called an STL file, which STL stands for standard triangle language. Triangle language. Triangle language. That's correct.
triangles, when you change the shapes of them, the bases, the sides and everything, and you link them all together can create a smooth surface. And that is the language that this gentleman by the name of Chuck Hall invented to make 3D printing work back in the early 1980s.
We should have included that in our episode about why there are so many languages. We didn't even talk about the languages that humans and computers have to speak together so they can figure out how to do these things. 100%. These are new languages that happen all the time. And a person came up with this idea that, yes, if I change the shape of these triangles and link them all together, make them all different sizes, I can create a smooth surface. And it's all math.
So what are the fun things that you're creating in this lab? Everything we create in here is fun because snowboarding is fun. It's true. The most fun things that we create in here is really great to play with new board shapes. You get an idea for a board shape. It doesn't take long to turn that into a 3D model, print it up, and then you've got something. It's way better than a fidget spinner. You can sit here and just drive it around your desk or whatever.
I've thrown 10 different board designs on a table at a meeting and next thing you know all these engineers and product developers are
driving them around the desk and doing snowboard moves and everything with them. And that's great fun. So they're like little versions. They're like the handheld version of what you think the board might look like. That's correct. We make a small version of it. And then once we have a chance to look at those versions and evaluate them, then we decide which ones we actually want to make full scale out here in our prototype shop and take out on snow.
Well, this might be a good time to ask you our question from our young listener. My name is Marcus. I'm from Richmond, Vermont. I'm six, and I want to know why snowboards look like skateboards. The simplest answer to that is because skateboarding.
In the early days of snowboarding, when snowboards weren't allowed at ski areas, we rode them wherever we could. Back hills, golf courses, anywhere there was a slope and snow, that's where we rode. And many of the people that were developing early snowboards, like Jake Burton, was a surfer. And so the boards looked like surfboards. They went down the hill. They even had little fins and skags on them to help them with that.
When snowboarding became accepted at ski areas over the course of very few years in the late 1980s, we got many new participants in the sports and many came from skateboarding. They came into the sport and they wanted to bring the same style of going in any direction, free-form activity just like they were doing on their skateboards, and they wanted to bring that to snow. So very quickly, the snowboard went from this sort of directional, long-nosed, standway-in-the-back form
Like a surfboard. Like a surfboard to this centered stance, twin tip, go in any direction, freestyle. And many of the iconic snowboard moves and tricks are taken from skateboard names. The half cab, named for Stevie Caballero, famous skateboarder. The melancholy, the indie grab, all skateboard names. So snowboards look like skateboards because skateboarding.
If you're a skateboarder and you don't live in a place with snow, can you use your skateboard to try to train yourself to be ready if you ever get a chance to go snowboarding?
Absolutely. Skateboarders tend to be the best snowboarders because skateboarding is, frankly, hard, okay? And when you crash on a skateboard, it hurts. And so you want to really work hard to not crash. And doing maneuvers on a skateboard, doing tricks on a skateboard is very difficult. So if you're a good skateboarder, you tend to pick up snowboarding very quickly. Doyle, thank you for showing me this. It's very cool. Jane, it is my pleasure indeed. Thanks so much for coming in, and please come back.
Coming up, we'll learn how snow is made. Today on But Why, we're marking the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere with some questions about snow and things you can do in it. Now that we know how snowboards are made, some of you might be in search of some snow to go carve some turns in. Or maybe you just want to know where that fluffy white stuff comes from.
Hi, my name is Easton. I live in Midland, Michigan, and I am 10 years old, and I am wondering how snow is made in the sky. My name is Madeline. I am 6 years old. I live in Scottsdale, Arizona. I want to know how snow is made. John Nelson and Mark Cassino wrote a book for kids called The Story of Snow, The Science of Winter's Wonder.
We reached out to John to see if he could help us understand the science of snow. Here's what he told us about how it's formed. The sky needs just three ingredients to make a snow crystal or a snowflake. Seeing that snow melts into water, you can probably guess that one ingredient is water. It's actually invisible water vapor. Note that each time you breathe air out, you're breathing out both air and water vapor.
Water vapor also comes out of the ground and trees, and it comes out of all the lakes, rivers, ponds, and puddles as well. So even though you can't see it, there is a lot of water vapor already in the air. The second ingredient is also something that you can't see. This is a whole lot of cold air for the snow to fall through. And finally, you wouldn't guess what the third ingredient is. It is a crucial bit that gets it all started. It is a tiny bit of dust. Did you know that? I didn't know that dust was a crucial ingredient in snow.
Okay, so we need water vapor, cool air, and a tiny bit of dust. Now these three ingredients don't look at all like snow, do they? So how do they get combined to make snow? Well, it all starts with the dust. Not just any dust, but dust caught up in a waft of rising air. It gets colder as it goes higher in the sky, and water vapor sticks to it, making a tiny droplet.
This is like a dewdrop condensing on a spider's web on the ground. But in the sky, the air keeps pushing the droplet higher and it gets colder, at some point freezing into ice. This ice is really tiny and though it is falling like a leaf, the air is still pushing it up. But more and more that invisible water vapor sticks to the small piece of ice and it grows larger. As it grows larger, it gets heavier and falls towards the ground. It is not just a little piece of ice anymore, it is snow.
As it falls, the water vapor sticks more to some sides of the snow and less to other sides. For example, the vapor sticks more at the points, making the points grow longer. This is how it can get its amazing six-cornered star shape. How long is it falling? The snow crystal is falling perhaps as short as 15 minutes or as long as several hours. If you look at a picture of star-shaped snow crystal, you probably will not see that dust.
but on some of them you can still see the frozen droplet at the very centre i forgot to mention one thing when a snow-crystal falls it often bumps into other snow-crystals and they get all tangled up sort of like spaghetti noodles
They might get into a big tangle of dozens or even hundreds. This is how the big snowflakes are made. John says scientists don't actually know all of the answers about how snowflakes are made, so they're still working on it. Maybe you will be the one to make the next big snowflake discovery. Here's another question. My name is Nathan, and I live in Taiwan, and I'm five years old.
And my question is, why do snowflakes melt? Nathan wants to know why snowflakes melt. They melt because, as we heard from John Nelson, snowflakes are frozen water vapor and a little bit of dust. If the air is warmer than 32 degrees, that ice melts. So snowflakes are only snowflakes when it's cold. Otherwise, they'd be rain.
For the same reason, snowflakes that you try to catch on your hands or your tongue will melt because your body is warmer than the snowflake. Sometimes if it's really cold outside and your mittens or gloves are warm on the inside but cold on the outside, you can keep those snowflakes snowy for long enough to look at just how beautiful they are. Hi, my name is Sadie. I'm from Stockbridge, Vermont, and I'm 8 years old. My question is, why is the snow white?
My name is Amelia and I live in Massachusetts and I'm 40 years old and my question is why is snow white? So why is snow white? Snow looks white for two reasons. The first part of the reason is that snow is made out of water. And what color is water? Hmm, trick question. Water, as you know, is quite clear. You look through water and see what is on the other side or you see what is inside.
Note that you are actually seeing the colors that have passed through the water. Now sunlight has all the colors of the rainbow in it and all these colors can pass through the water or bounce off without being removed. Note that light doesn't really bounce. Scientists and engineers instead say that the light scatters. That's what I'll say. Second, snow is a very small piece of water and also quite bumpy. Because it is so small and bumpy,
Nearly all the light that hits snow will scatter off in all directions. None is removed, and almost none of it can go straight through. So when you look at snow, you will see all the light that's shone upon it and scattered off. This makes it look white. Because the water in snow is so small and bumpy, the light can't go through it. It gets scattered in all directions. You're seeing all the light that's shining on the snow bouncing back at you.
That's the same reason other things are white. Light being reflected off the surface of the object makes it appear white. There's also why clouds look white. The same for salt and sugar. In fact, everything that is white is white for these reasons. And John has an experiment you can try if you want to test this out. Fill a tub with water and gently add a little bit of soap. Don't stir it yet. If you look at it, you'll be quite clear. If it's a deep tub, say a bathtub, you might find it slightly blue.
but overall pretty clear. Now make the water bumpy. How? Stir it up. Make bubbles. Note how the bubbles look whiter. And if you stir harder, the bubbles will get even whiter yet, because you're making smaller bubbles. The smaller they are, the whiter they look. And here's something you can try the next time it's snowing. First look at the snow on the ground. You'll see that it's white, just as you always knew. But now, look straight up at the snow falling above you.
The snow that is just about to hit your face. What color is that snow? Try it and find out. If there's snow where you live, give it a try and then tell us what you see. Send your answers to questions at butwhykids.org. We sent one more question to John Nelson. My name is Kazu. I am 8 years old and I live in Farmville, Virginia. And I want to know why are all snowflakes different?
This question is similar to another question that I hear a lot. That is, are any two snow crystals alike? But I prefer this question because it asks why. Why? Why are they all different? Before we start, note that we use the term snow crystal to mean the snow particles grown from just one crystal, and the term snowflake to mean a tangled clump of many snow crystals. Anyway, the answer to this question comes from research done in the 1930s by a Japanese physicist called Ukichiro Nakaya.
What he found was that if you grow a snow crystal at one temperature and at one humidity, never changing these conditions, then the crystals would always look similar. Not exactly the same, but quite similar. He did these experiments in his laboratory, by the way. But if he changed either the temperature or the humidity, then the crystal would grow differently.
So snow crystals grown in a lab actually do look quite similar. Not exact, but very similar. And that's because the scientists can control the conditions like temperature and the amount of water in the air. That's humidity. Now each side of the crystal grows outward at its own speed. This is sort of like two branches of a tree, with one branch growing faster than another. What Nokia found was that when the humidity was similar to that in a cloud...
Then when he changed the temperature by only one degree, the speed that the crystal sides grew changed a lot. So he spent a lot of time in his lab growing the crystals many different ways. It was cold work, and he had to wear a thick coat all the time. You know, one of those coats with a big furry hood that they wear way up north? But I imagine Yif had had a hard time finding a happier man. From what he found, we now say that the snow crystal is very sensitive to temperature.
It is sensitive to humidity as well, but its sensitivity to temperature is extraordinary amongst all known crystals. So outside, when a real snow crystal falls through the cloud and below the cloud, its temperature and humidity keeps changing as it falls through air of different conditions. So, the sides of the snow crystal keep changing how they grow, because each snow crystal follows its own path down to the ground,
It experiences different temperatures and humidities. And because they all experience these different conditions, they all look different. John Nelson's book is called The Story of Snow, The Science of Winter's Wonder. Thanks very much, John. One final question just came in that we can squeeze into this episode before we end. My name is Devlin. I'm six years old, and I'm from Seattle, Washington, D.C.
And I want to know how deep is the deepest snow? It kind of depends on what you mean, Dov. Do you mean snow that falls all at once, so the deepest snow in one snowfall? Or how deep the snow can get over the course of the winter without melting? I'm going to choose to answer the second way because it's pretty cool.
Any guesses where the deepest snow is? If you guessed the Arctic or the Antarctic, try again. Those places are actually kind of dry and not very snowy because really cold air doesn't hold moisture as well. The deepest snows are in mountains on the island of Honshu in Japan. If you were to take a shovel and try to dig from the top of the snow all the way down to the ground, you'd be digging for a very long time.
In fact, the record there is 465 inches of snow. For those of you who think in feet, that's almost 39 feet of snow. For those of you who think in meters, that's 11.8 meters. That's like a four-story building worth of snow.
Okay, that's enough listening. If you live in a snowy place, go out and play now. Try those experiments John Nelson suggested and let us know what you find. And remember, if you have a question about anything, we want to hear it. Have an adult record an audio file. It's easy to do on a smartphone. And send it to questions at butwhykids.org. We will do our best to get an answer for you.
But Why is produced by me, Jane Lindholm, and Melody Beaudet at Vermont Public Radio. Our theme music is by Luke Reynolds. We'll be back in two weeks, in 2018, with an all-new episode. Until then, stay curious. From PR.
