Snowball
A snowball is a ball of snow, usually created by scooping snow with the hands and compacting it into a roughly fist-sized ball. The snowball is necessary to hold a snowball fight. The pressure exerted by the hands on the snow is determinant for the final result. Reduced pressure leads to a light and soft snowball. A higher pressure cause the snow to melt, turning into liquid water. Once the pressure is removed, the water turns again into ice, leading to a more compact and hard snowball, which eventually can be considered harmful during a snowball fight. The process of melting and refreezing is called regelation.
A snowball may also be a large ball of snow formed by rolling a smaller snowball on a snow-covered surface. The smaller snowball grows by picking up additional snow as it rolls. The term snowball effect is named after this process.
The historical significance of snowballs
- Snowball fights are known to have been a medieval pastime.[1]
- Ambrogio Lorenzetti (c. 1290 - 1348) depicts his personification of winter as holding a snowball.
- On March 5, 1770, the pelting of occupying British soldiers with snowballs eventually led to the Boston Massacre, which helped eventually spark the American Revolutionary War.
- In 1959 a Yale student snowball fight on city streets got out of hand and resulted in arrests by New Haven police. Students then pelted police officers with snowballs during the St. Patrick's Day parade. The so-called “snowball riot” attracted national media attention and was a kind of town-and-gown riot. (Yale Alumni Magazine, March, 2001).
Current World Record
Students of Michigan Technological University rolled the World's Largest Snowball on February 10 2006. It was 21 feet 3 inches in circumference (81 inches or 2.06 metres in diameter).
Heraldry
The snowball occasionally occurs as a charge in heraldry.
Snowballs in fiction
- The comic strip Calvin and Hobbes is infamous for its use of snowballs. In one of the books it describes how to make the perfect snowball. These are some cartoons showing Calvin's great snow figure making ability.
- In The Simpsons, Lisa's cats are named Snowball 1-5.