EAS 10600 #M Group E

Public Group active 3 years ago

Lab 2: Scientific Method

Viewing 7 posts - 16 through 22 (of 22 total)
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  • #108268

    While I don’t have any kind of similar population where I am, I can imagine that many people in one place would create traffic problems regardless of the kinds of services they were trying to get to. If you can’t make larger parking lots because of the dense urban planning then there will be plenty of traffic issues with that too. I think you have the right idea about making traffic enforcements stricter, but maybe people just never learn how to park correctly in that neighborhood. I don’t know how restrictive the license requirements are, but maybe it would help you answer your questions here?

    #108271
    Emily Jiang
    Participant

    A week ago, the weather forecast predicted an incoming snowstorm and it did occur. The day that the snow fell, it felt really soft, enough for children to play with and not get hurt. However, I noticed that a couple days later, after all the snow settled and piled up along the sidewalks, the snow was not as soft anymore. It became hard and it wasn’t as malleable compared to the first snowfall.

    My question is why does soft, fluffy snow turn into hard snow as the days pass?

    Other observations I’ve noticed were that when snow initially falls, it’s really light. Enough for the wind to carry it off it’s surface. After 3 or more days, the snow becomes really compact and piles up on each other, sort of forming a rock like structure. Especially since people plow the snow to the side of the sidewalks so all the snow that was accumulated becomes piles on piles of snow. My hypothesis is that the initial fluffy snow turns into hard snow because of the amount of air in the snow gradually leaves the snow particles after a couple days. When snow initially falls, there is a lot of air inside the snowflakes making it fluffy and easy to handle. But the air slowly leaves the snowflakes causing the snow to become really hard and compact. Compact snow is dense, meaning that there is minimal air inside. If I had to create an (imperfect) analogy, I would say that it’s sort of like brown sugar. When you sift brown sugar, it’s really light and you can blow it away really easily. However, when you begin to pack the brown sugar into the cup, you’re squeezing all the air that’s inside and making the brown sugar in the cup to become really packed and compact. In conclusion, the reason that soft snow becomes hard is due to the amount of air that are inside the snow particles.

    #108277
    Emily Jiang
    Participant

    Hi Jonathan, I was curious about this as well! Reading your conclusion, I would agree with you as well that bigger piles of snow are more difficult to melt, even if the outside temperature is above freezing point. I consider the dense piles of snow to be the pretty conclusive evidence  that those would talk much longer to melt compared to just a thin layer of snow. Due to the dense snow, the insides or the center of these snow piles are not basking in the sun only the snow that are on top of the piles. I would also be curious as to how long it would take for one pile of snow to melt even halfway because it’s been a week since the last snowstorm and there are still piles of snow on the sidewalks.

    #108278
    Francisca Vallejo
    Participant

    I went to the store to do some grocery shopping and two days later as I was going to make some veggie stew, I realized that my eggplant and mushrooms had developed some green mold on them which hasn’t happened before. Why did my mushrooms and eggplant develop green mold after two days of being purchased? Looking through my fridge I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary since the rest of my veggies were completely fine; while looking through my fridge I realized that I didn’t feel cold; my arms, face, and hands were not cold. Not feeling cold should be more apparent during the winter because my heater is on, the change in ambient temperature is drastic from being in the living room to roaming inside the fridge, not feeling cold is significant. If I don’t feel cold while roaming through my fridge and my veggies have developed mold after two days of being purchased, then my fridge’s cooling fan is not working. the argument of me purchasing old veggies without knowing, can also be made. That would explain why they developed mold so quickly. To test the capabilities of the fan, I melted some butter in a small bowl, then put it back in the fridge to see how long it’ll take to solidify. It took 1 hour to completely solidify. I didn’t know how long it should take for butter to completely solidify in the fridge; a simple google search fixed that and the total time should be around 30 minutes. Therefore, based on the melted butter, my molded veggies, and not feeling cold while roaming the fridge all conclude that my fridge’s cooling fan is not working properly.

    #108279
    Emily Jiang
    Participant

    Hi Yussef, your topic on polar vortexes are new to me, as this is the first time I’ve heard about it so hearing about this is pretty interesting to me. I liked the way that you researched this topic and came to a reasonable conclusion based off your research. Also, like Dahlia mentioned, raising up the issue of climate change and how that could also be a factor was good since there can be various colliding factors. In addition to your research, I would be curious as to how polar vortexes are effecting other states, not just NY.

    #108280
    Francisca Vallejo
    Participant

    Interesting analogy Emily. I really pictured the air particles in between the snow that makes it fluffy. Besides the amount of air leaving inside the snow particles making it less fluffy, did you consider the decrease in temperature that we experience after the storm? While the storm occurs and the snow falls and piles up into a fluffy malleable particle the temperature outside is not extremely cold and dry, it almost feels cold and humid. The next couple of days the weather begins to decrease and the air becomes dry and dense which makes the “fluff” in the snow decrease and become hard ice, which makes the rock-like structure you observed.

    #108282
    Francisca Vallejo
    Participant

    Hi Jonathan, interesting view on the melting of snow. I specially observed this while trying to get into a car that was surrounded by snow on the side walk. I stepped on the snow and saw how fluffy was on top but the bottom was completely rock-hard ice. I think layers of ice are made as more snow falls which will also prove your conclusion and observations on the effect of sunlight melting snow. The deeper the level of snow the harder the snow becomes. If more snow were to fall then the top of the layer from the previous snow fall will become hard and the new layer created will remain fluffy and malleable.

Viewing 7 posts - 16 through 22 (of 22 total)

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