Have you ever slipped on ice and fallen on your derrière? At best, it is unpleasant; at worst, it can send you to the hospital with a broken bone (or even kill you). Icy sidewalks and parking lots...
Growing up with cold Canadian winters means that we get to enjoy tobogganing, skiing, and other snowy activities. It also means that from a young age, we’re warned of the dangers of getting too cold.
Our collective vision of Christmas landscapes is so immersed in snow that the very phrase “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” conjures up imagery that is nearly all frosted, sparkling and...
Let’s start at the very beginning. As pure water is cooled to 0oC, it begins to form ice. This simply means that the H2O molecules which were randomly scurrying about in the liquid state now assume...
Snow-making machines actually make tiny beads of ice, each one about one ten-thousandth of an inch in diameter. Water is sprayed from a hose together with compressed air. The air is needed because...
Just about any subject becomes more interesting with a deeper dive. That is certainly the case for curling, a sport that is a mystery to many and unfortunately often the butt of jokes. However, it...
Ice is great in a beverage or on a skating rink but we don’t want it on our streets. How do we melt it? Potassium acetate, sodium chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride or urea will do the...
The ice was painted white. Artificial ice, which is a misnomer since it is very real ice, is made by pouring water over a concrete surface that can be cooled by circulating refrigerated brine...
Why is it that in hot countries we put salt on ice in the ice cream makers to keep the ice from melting, while in cold countries we put salt on ice to melt it? In both cases, the answer is based on...
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