Fun Fact of the Week! It’s a bit chilly out, eh?
Let’s take an interdisciplinary look at this thing called ‘cold’, and see where it takes us.
Math/Chemistry: Snowflakes Hydrogen bonding is the culprit responsible for the creation of snowflakes. The bent polar structure of H2O molecules leads to ideal hydrogen bonding in a hexagonal grid, the positively charged hydrogens aligning themselves with the negatively charged oxygen, when temperatures are low enough. From a seed crystal, a small hexagon prism is created, the vertices of which are more jaggad. This roughness is easier for more molecules to get stuck to, and so the vertices grow faster. They then stick out further into the air, and attract more water, and grow even faster. A single snowflake is produced over more than half an hour, and can take over 100,000 water droplets to produce. Both temperature and H2O saturation of the air cause different types of crystals to be formed. Ukichiro Nakaya produced a chart in the 1930’s to describe the relationship:
The variation between columnar and platelike forms is attributed to variations of nucleation barriers on the base vs. prism sides of the developing snowflakes. The difference in nucleation barriers causes it to either grow up or out depending on the temperature, and that’s how snowflakes are made.
History: Fahrenheit
The first thermometer was produced by the scientific heavy hitter Galileo. He made a long tube filled with clear liquid, and a bunch of glass bobbers of varying densities. As the temperature changed, so too would the density of the liquid, and the bobbers would float themselves to different levels, which would then tell the temperature. Kinda genius, right?
The first thermometer as we know it was from Legend #2 Robert Hooke in 1664, and it was filled with wine. Characteristic to his style, Newton then liberally borrowed from Hooke’s ideas in 1701, and made his own smaller version with oil. By 1665, Christian Huyges had introduced the idea of using freezing and boiling points to create a temperature scale, but a Polish instrument producer by the name of Fahrenheit had other plans. Instead, he designed his scale to work at atmospheric temperatures (which is why 0o Fahrenheit is well below freezing). The 0o was found by measuring the temperature of a “mixture of water, ice, and sal-ammoniac, or also sea water.” His was the first to use mercury, however the real reason why his scale was so successful was simply because he was a better marketer. If you find this interesting, read more about it in Robert J. Ruhf’s article on the Historical Case of the Creation of the Fahrenheit Temperature Scale.
Poly Sci: Why are cold countries richer?
There’s a debate for your next poli-sci class. Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark are all some of the wealthiest nations on earth, and they’re all damnably cold. Even Chile and Argentina are generally better-off than their warmer northern neighbors. Of course, there are exceptions to this trend, but it’s a little suspicious, don’t you think? Here are some theories as to the cause:
- Cold climates incentivize cooperation, stockpiling, and careful resource management
- Diseases spread slower in colder climates
- The wealth needed to survive in a colder country is much higher, and therefore the average person is going to be wealthier
- Additionally, colder countries have smaller populations, and so there is proportionally more natural wealth to divide up among them.
Is this a real trend or is it just a coincidence? I don’t know, you decide!
Language and Literature :
Sounds of the Winter
“Sounds of the winter too,
Sunshine upon the mountains—many a distant strain
From cheery railroad train—from nearer field, barn, house
The whispering air—even the mute crops, garner’d apples, corn,
Children’s and women’s tones—rhythm of many a farmer and of flail,
And old man’s garrulous lips among the rest, Think not we give out yet,
Forth from these snowy hairs we keep up yet the lilt.”
-Walt Whitman 1891