Why does snow melt in our hands?

In winter, why does snow melt faster when we hold it in our hand than if it was left on the ground?

The snow fears for its safety and starts to sweat Our hands are water resistant The snow experiences more gravity hence melts faster Our hands are much warmer than the cold ground

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5 solutions

Calvin Lin Staff
Sep 4, 2015

Snow is frozen water, which is at a temperature of 0 C 0 ^\circ C and below. Our hands are at body temperature, which is close to 3 7 C 37 ^ \circ C . Hence, our hands are much warmer than the ground, and so there will be more heat transfer to the snow, which causes it to melt more.

The ice starts to melt when our hand and the snow reaches thermal equilibirium.Hot body transfers heat to a cold body. :)

Hadia Qadir
Sep 6, 2015

pretty simple ! because in winters ground's temp fall with the atmosphere temp but our body temp is still 37*c so it is much warmer than temp of ground so snow melts faster in our hands

Simon Esslemont
Sep 6, 2015

Ground cold, hands hot. Heat makes snow and ice melt faster.

Razik Ridzuan
Sep 5, 2015

I like the 4th answer very much.. fear of its safety...

Haha, there was another funny one like this i remember, they asked if electrical transmission wires are kept longer to hang downwards so that more birds can sit.

Shib Shankar Sikder - 5 years, 9 months ago

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that was silly..

Razik Ridzuan - 5 years, 9 months ago

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