Voices

Burke's Law: Embrace the weird, wonderful world of snow

Snow has arrived in Southcentral Alaska, offering a blanket of light to counter the creep of diminishing daylight. Love it or hate it, there are ways to make the most of snow for either the Heat Miser or the Snow Miser in all of us. Here are four family-friendly activities for intrepid cold-weather observers and couch-loving, fireside wannabe scientists alike.

If you've ever seen a sun dog -- a halo around the sun -- on a particularly cold, clear day, you've caught a glimpse of diamond dust, a thin, glittering fog-like optical phenomenon generated by ice crystals. Snowflakes, just like diamond dust, are also ice crystals. And they have a lot to tell us about the world we live in.

In an interview for FrontierScientists.com, Matthew Sturm, a professor with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, calls snow an "unbelievably beautiful substance that does very strange things." If you take a moment to see the dynamic quality of snow through Sturm's eyes, snow might just start to enchant you, too.

"It doesn't take long before that play of light and ice and color sort of captures you. It's this nuanced, subtle world that always seems like it has something magic hiding right around the corner," Sturm told Frontier Scientists.

Snowflake facts

• There are upwards of 121 different types of snowflakes, which you can categorize by shape.

• A snowflake from Fairbanks is on a commemorative U.S. postage stamp.

• Snow and its behavior has everything to do with melting; ice crystals are always, regardless of the temperature, very close to their melting point compared to other molecules.

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• Snowflakes owe their hexagonal, or six-sided, symmetry to the way water molecules bond.

Learn more: Listen to Dr. Sturm's lecture "Weird Stuff You Ought to Know About Snow," or read his children's book "Apun: The Arctic Snow." A teacher's guide is also available. Visit the California Institute of Technology's www.snowcrystals.com.

Project 1: 'Cold Wells'

Sturm has voyaged across the Northwest Passage in the depths of winter to collect cold-weather data, but he's made it easy for you to be a science-minded winter sleuth from the warmth and comfort of your home through what he terms a "cold well" -- a cooled, mobile slab of dark-colored granite on top of thick construction-grade foam core. I made one for about $15. It works great and I am positive my family will use it all winter.

Materials: Dark-colored granite (I used a single floor tile), foam, spray adhesive.

Assemble: Cut the foam to size, glue it to the granite. Optional: add sides to the "well" to keep the snow contained. I only used a small amount at a time, so I chose to build a model without sides.

Get Busy: Chill the cold well. I used my freezer, but you can also just stick it outside if it's cold enough. When you're ready, grab some snow, head back inside and have a seat at the table. Use a magnifying glass and small paint brush to find and isolate crystals of interest.

Explore further: Try some photography. My iPhone and handheld camera both captured decent shots. They'll never rival the magnificent snowflake photos of Caltech professor Kenneth Librecht, but I still loved having a go at it.

Project 2: Sintering

I hadn't heard the word "sintering" before my own interview with Sturm last week. It's a process well known in metallurgy, but one that also occurs with snow. By bringing a substance close to its melting point, you create smaller particles that bond together and form a stronger, denser version of the substance. If you've ever had snow fall off a roof and waited until the next day to shovel it out of the way, only to discover the job is like moving wet concrete, you've experienced sintering, according to Sturm. Turns out, it's an easy process to recreate.

Materials: Shop-Vac, hand-held mixer, anything that will "pulverize" light, fluffy snow. I tested this experiment at home using my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer. (Don't tell my mom.)

Process: Take light fluffy snow and whip and whirl it until it's reduced and dense. It only takes a few minutes and the difference is remarkable. This is the stuff you want to use when building snow forts and snow sculptures. It holds its shape, is strong and sets up nicely.

Project 3: Build a Killer Snow Fort

Speaking of snow forts, for a great wintertime fortress, Sturm has this insider tip: fill banker boxes with snow, tamp the snow down and let them sit overnight. The next day you'll have fantastic snow blocks to work with.

Project 4: Preserving snowflakes

Preserving snowflakes requires glass slides, super glue or some other fixative, a little skill in finding and flicking a good specimen into place, and the patience to let the slides cure. Once done, you'll have your own forever flake, a snowflake you can bring indoors and examine any time with a magnifying glass or microscope. For a step-by-step process, visit http://www.snowcrystals.com/preserve/preserve.html

Jill Burke is a longtime Alaska journalist writing from the center of a busy family life. Her father swore by "Burke's Law No. 1 -- never take no for an answer." Meaning, don't give up in the face of adversity. The lesson stuck. Share your ideas with her at jill@alaskadispatch.com, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Jill Burke

Jill Burke is a former writer and columnist for Alaska Dispatch News.

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