artificial snow

CASSIDY SCHOW

Artificial Snow

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/artificial-snow-close-up-6629328.jpg

Artificial snow is used in place of real snow.

It was used in the winter olympics.

MACHINE

The water is cooled to its freezing point.

The cooled water is then taken and put in the snow gun.

The water is pumped through the gun at a very high pressure.(Ritter, 1) http://magicsnow022.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/snow-machin.jpg

MACHINE CONTINUED

The machine compresses the air into tiny water droplets.

These droplets are then shot out of the snow gun and fall as snow to the ground.(Ritter, 1)

http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/snow-maker-illustration.gif

POLYMER

Polymers that are used for fake snow are also found in diapers.

These polymers are called Sodium Polyacrylate.

Carboxyl groups hang off the polymer.

The hydrogen in the carboxyl group is replaced by sodium.

The sodium separates from the polymer when it touches water

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Sodium_polyacrylate.png

POLYMER CONTINUED

This leaves two carboxyl ions connected to the polymer and one free sodium ion.

Water can move into the polymer because the two carboxyl groups move away from each other

The water dilutes the sodium ions and hydrogen bonds to the chain.

It can only do this because the oxygen in the carboxyl group and the hydrogen from the water are attracted to each other (Lutz, 2).

ADDITIVES Additives are added to the

water to help snow form and last longer.

Gases such as carbon dioxide and liquid nitrogen can be used for this process.

Some people believe that silver iodide can also be used, but this could potentially end up being bad for the environment and toxic to others.

The most common salts that are on the slopes are chlorides and nitrates (Capobianco, 3).

WORKS CITED "Artificial Snow." Madehow.com. N.p., 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.

<http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Artificial-Snow.html>. Capobianco, Willa, et al. "Artificial Snow Production for Winter Sport

Recreation." University of Vermont. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://www.uvm.edu/~wbowden/Teaching/Risk_Assessment/Resources/Public/Projects/Project_docs2012/Final_Reports/Group7_Ski_Resorts_Snow.pdf.>.

Lutz, Diana. "Hollywood's Special Effets." Chemmatters Dec. 2009: 1-2. Chemmatters. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://www.acs.org/chemmatters>.

Ritter, Steve. "Artificial Snow." Chemical and Engineering News. N.p., 19 Jan. 2004. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. <https://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/8203snow.html>.

KURKOVÁ, Romana, Debajyoti RAY, Dana NACHTIGALLOVÁ a Petr KLÁN. Chemistry of Small Organic Molecules on Snow Grains: The Applicability of Artificial Snow for Environmental Studies. Environmental Science & Technology, USA: The American Chemical Society, 2011