Fake Snow? -- Internet Hoax

I presume these intrepid scientists never thought of holding the snow (or fake snow) in their hand until it melted (or didn't melt) and see if there is any residue afterward.

As the quoted post about density said, well, density.

reply to post by westcoast


hussar - someone on these threads understands basic science

as I said on the other thread - the black stuff is unburnt carbon ` soot ` from the lighter

reply to post by Frank Dinkle


I agree with that, but why does the snow turn black? They should have a full vid of them going out to a field of some sort, not a sidewalk and getting the snow then doing the experiment.

One poster had it right, that snow could have had some salt in it.

reply to post by Frank Dinkle


lol ok so someone posted this on YouTube from Wikipedia and they are an expert in everything on trying to debunk it? thats rather weak.

This is an old science class trick, due to evaporation of ice crystals or something like that mass/density thing... place the snow it in a pot or pan on a stove and you will get normal melting of the ice/snow crystals, this eliminates evaporation issue caused by the direct flame being placed on the ice/snow crystals.

The soot or black marks left behind are caused by incomplete combustion (carbon)

Frank Dinkle
Simple physics


saw this here

www.youtube.com...

Thanks for adding the science behind it and that jives perfectly to what I understand for the basic laws of physics here, too.

It's amazing how easily it can be made to look like something radically different than it is tho... I hope folks read what you shared and take a moment to fact check it and see it's pretty much saying the straight scoop on things.

boncho
I presume these intrepid scientists never thought of holding the snow (or fake snow) in their hand until it melted (or didn't melt) and see if there is any residue afterward.

As the quoted post about density said, well, density.

I have good Cdn snow, and I can't even hold it in my hand without it melting right away.
I just scooped up a handful off my porch. It melts instantly from the heat off my hand.

Well, I just tried it. I'm in NW Ohio, by the way. It did just what the video showed. I packed into a snowball and burnt it with a lighter. No melting that i could tell. Turned black and stunk like chemical. Not sure how or why, perhaps that posted info about thermodynamics is correct. I don't know enough about it to explain it, just that I burnt a snowball and it turned black.

reply to post by bringmecoffee


Now try and burn anything else with a dirty bic lighter....and watch the same carbon form on almost any surface that flame touches but doesn't consume outright. Blue flame is clean flame ..and butane lighters are about as far from that as it comes. Icky stuff there.

I just scooped a mixing bowl full of snow from my deck and it was so fluffy it reached the top. I also put my lighter to it and it turned black as well, and there is an odour but I think that is from the lighter. The snow has compressed down, but there is very little water in the snow. There is condensation on the outside of the bowl but this 3 1/2 inches of snow (4 cups) has melted to about a 1/3 cup of water. This is how it has been falling all winter, not the back breaking stuff of previous winters. I noticed in the early days of winter that sometimes it looked round and light like styrofoam and my dog going out the lick the stuff is making me nervous and I can't stop him from doing this.

stirling
Well this is strange....i hope anyone who has some snow...i dont....but whoever tries this should give a rough location and result...maybe we can pin it down for locale....

I am from WI and our snow did not melt. I know snow we get 80-100 inches every year. I also noticed when i lit it on fire it smelt like plastic.

reply to post by Staroth


Thanks for the info-graphic! Seems absolutely reasonable of an explanation to me...I honestly thought It was chemical laden snow from deicer or salt.

West Virginia

Alright, I went on my front porch and got some snow from behind my swing. I've not used salt or anything else on my deck and never have. I brought in a handful, held it over the sink and stuck a Bic lighter to it, and strangely enough, it doesn't melt, it just turns black like it's being burnt and it does produce a smell. I'm sure that the scientific explanation posted in this thread is probably why.

I'm assuming the chemical smell left behind is the same as the black stuff. Residue from the butane.

Sly1one
reply to post by Lingweenie

 

I've only seen a couple other videos of this that were private facebook vids...it could be an internet hoax who knows, my snow didn't do this and I'm 50/50 with people I know trying where they live. One friend in PA said her snow was fine...

Nice thing is its easy for people to test and corroborate or not...which is what hopefully ends up happening here...enough people test it out and see whats up.

I don't know why people would hoax this though...think about it would be a pretty difficult hoax too...what material would look like snow but burn like a weird plastic?

edit on 30-1-2014 by Sly1one because: (no reason given)

I saw the video.
I tried it.
It's weird.
I'm in Wilmington, NC...where it's really just compacted ice pellets.

I grew up in Long Island...so snow is nothing new.

I thought that maybe since it's compacted ice pellets that the ice was melting into itself...
but it's just melting like a weird styrofoam...

I'm gonna try this again with video.
I'm gonna try different methods...

I'm gonna boil this crap and see what I can see and smell.

Then we can put this to rest.

Is it that we just thought about melting snow with a lighter...how was this discovered?

It's like saying that rain isn't wet.

Does Canada have different snow?

My dog came in with a snowball, a very compacted snowball, stuck to him, so I tried this over the sink.
There was some blackness from the lighter, normal, but it also melted into water both from where I was holding it in my hand, and from the lighter. I had to move the lighter or it would have gotten water in it.

Some people are getting some really weird, questionable snow if it's not melting.

I'm glad mine is normal, and clean, one of my dogs eats it all day long

sled735

Happy1
reply to post by westcoast

 

Yep - that's the video -

The north african said it was "common" where he's from -

The "snow-rolls" - just like the "polar vortex" - are seemingly strange -as the MSM reports -

I've grown up in the midwest and, unfortunately, know snow and bad weather well, as I'm 50 years old - never seen "snow-rolls" -

I haven't tried to light the snow here in wisconsin up - maybe I will tomorrow, just to see.

Now you have.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Here's another interesting prediction. The Human Resources guy of an oil company speculated that there was going to be a cold winter:

oilpro.com...

They make it seem a bit stranger when they do a follow up:

oilpro.com...

I'm wondering whether this cold weather is due to Comet Ison or whether the oil companies have found a way of controlling the weather

Double post

It's hard to tell. When they use a lighter. It may be melting into the snow, which isn't shown underneath. You can see it shrinking which looks normal.


Need to see a demo of normal snow for comparison.

Can't they just scoop up some snow and put it in a pot of boiling water to see if it melts?

I'll reserve judgement until I see better demonstrations.