Talk:Snowball

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historical significance[edit]

I remember a football game where they hit the feild goal atempt with a snowball. anyone know what game? -{{User:Preschooler.at.heart/sig}} 17:53, 5 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why is Calvin and Hobbs infamous for using snowballs?

I second that qery. MrBucket 00:59, 11 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed the "in fiction" section, as it's not relevant and will never be incorporated into the article per WP:AVTRIV. Leave it up to the editors of Calvin and Hobbes to decide if they want to discuss the common occurrence of snowballs. Mango juice^talk 15:23, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

People throwing snowballs at famous figures[edit]

Can someone tie in the famous snowballing incidents like Pres. Nixon being targeted by a snowball and then throwing it back at the heckler?

137.30.165.28 (talk) 21:05, 20 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Disputed MTU record[edit]

The record listed in the article seems dubious, as it links to an Michigan Technological University site saying the snowball was over 20 feet, yet actual video footage from around the same time, posted on the same parent site, shows it just over 6 feet, and calls that the "world record." Can anyone verify the 20'+ height?—DMCer™ 00:18, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I went ahead and removed the content, which is here, should anyone find a reliable source for the snowball purported to be taller than a house. This source, also at the parent site, seems to indicate the 20' claim is inaccurate. A third party source is required for the title of "world record," I would think.—DMCer™ 05:52, 9 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Regelation[edit]

Can someone provide a solid citation that regelation is involved in the creation of a snowball/iceball. I can see two problems with this claim:

This supposed 'regelation' effect apparently disappears when the snow is too cold.
The wiki article mentioned states that the pressures required for 'regelation' (50 MPa) are orders of magnitude greater then what a person would be able to create between cupped hands. —Preceding unsigned comment added by JefeMixtli (talk • contribs) 20:20, 24 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I removed this paragraph and replaced it. I think the phenomenon is more complex. Humid snow can be compacted such that the snowflakes are "glued" into ice. This is below melting pressure, but can be compared to production of tablets from powders. The density of the material will increase, removing air and replacing it with sticky ice-water-ice contact surfaces, enchancing hardness. Furthermore using warm hands will help with actual melting.

A higher pressure causes the snow to melt,[citation needed] turning into liquid water. Once the pressure is removed, the water turns again into ice,[citation needed] leading to a more compact and hard snowball called an iceball, which eventually can be considered harmful during a snowball fight. The process of melting and refreezing is called regelation.[citation needed]

An excellent hand strength is lifting 64 kg, and assuming 1 cm² per finger of contact surface, it can be converted to 16 bars, which lowers the bulk melting point by a fraction of a degree. Clearly we're looking at liquid-solid surface phenomena like pressure sintering, rather than bulk regelation. --vuo (talk) 19:33, 8 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sexual term[edit]

An anon IP added some text about the sexual slang term (see Snowballing (sexual practice)). I had reverted the text but are there any views on adding this wiki-link in a see also section? Fæ (talk) 09:10, 14 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There's no reason for it since the two concepts are unrelated except tangentially by name. The disambiguation note at the beginning of the article is sufficient to point readers to other meanings for the term snowball. Mind matrix 13:06, 14 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]