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Atmospheric Chemistry

Periodic Graphics: The chemistry of snow and ice

Chemical educator and Compound Interest blogger Andy Brunning explores water’s unique behavior when temperatures plummet

by Andy Brunning
January 26, 2020 | APPEARED IN VOLUME 98, ISSUE 4

 

09804-feature3-graphic.jpg

To download a PDF of this article, visit: cenm.ag/snowice


References used to create this graphic:

Connor, Deanna. How snowflakes get their shapes. Accessed Jan. 21, 2020.

McNeill , V. Faye and Hastings, Meredith G. Ice in the environment: connections to atmospheric chemistry. Environ. Res. Lett.(2008) DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/3/4/045004

The Shapes of Snowflakes. Compound Interest. Accessed Jan. 21, 2020.


A collaboration between C&EN and Andy Brunning, author of the popular graphics blog Compound Interest

To see more of Brunning’s work, go to compoundchem.com. To see all of C&EN’s Periodic Graphics, visit cenm.ag/periodicgraphics.

 

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Comments
Peter Wood (January 29, 2020 4:13 AM)
I do enjoy these graphics, they are excellent. However, something looks wrong with the 'Ice and Density' plot. Firstly, the gradient of the plot is steeper below zero (ice) than above zero (liquid water) which surprises me - however, a quick Google points to a Wikipedia page on ice which sees to support this (in mentioning that ice gets les dense as the temperature is lowered). I do appreciate that H2O is 'special' and that ice is a high-temperature solid. Secondly, the plot does not show the 8-9% volume change on freezing (the 'iceberg effect') so is this a plot of the density of liquid water (not ice) showing the density of supercooled water at temperatures below 0 Celsius?
Andy Brunning (January 30, 2020 4:51 PM)
Hi Peter,

Thanks for your comment. You're right that the graph shows the density of water at all of the temperatures shown. In retrospect, I can see how the inclusion of the ice cubes in the graphic is a bit deceptive here, as it implies that it also shows the density of ice.

As you say, the volume change on freezing means that the density of ice would be approximately 0.92 grams per centimetre cubed at 0˚C. I'll see if we can change the plot to make it more accurate.

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