Snow, Ice and Other Wonders of Water

A Tribute to the Hydrogen Bond

Ivar Olovsson

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9789814749381
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Atomic & Molecular Physics

The book illustrates the fascinating world of the different forms of water — from ice and snow to liquid water. The water molecule, H2O, is the second most common molecule in the Universe (behind hydrogen, H2) and ice is the most abundant solid material. Snow and ice appear in a countless large number of different shapes and with properties which can be quite different. Detailed knowledge of the properties of snow is of great importance for the Sami people involved in reindeer herding and several hundred names are used to characterize the different types.

The properties of ice and liquid water are very special and unique in several respects. In contrast to most other substances, the density of ice is lower than that of liquid water, which has many very important consequences in our daily life. Water plays a unique role in chemistry and although tremendous research has been spent on this seemingly simple substance, there are still many unsolved questions about the structure of liquid water. The special properties of water are due to hydrogen bonding between the H2O molecules, and this book may be seen as a tribute to the hydrogen bond. The general properties of the hydrogen bond are treated in three separate papers. The hydrogen bond is of fundamental importance in biological systems since all living matter has evolved from and exists in an aqueous environment and hydrogen bonds are involved in most biological processes. There is a hundred times more water molecules in our bodies than the sum of all the other molecules put together.

Contents:

• There are Many Different Types of Snow
• Early Snow Crystal Observations
• Artificial Snow Crystals
• Snow and Ice Crystals in Nature
• Snow for Pleasure and Art
• The Ice Surface and Formation of Ice Spikes
• Structure and Physical and Chemical Properties of Water and Ice
• Physical Properties of Water and Ice; Significance in Nature
• The Water Molecule is Unique
• The Role of the Lone Pairs in Hydrogen Bonding
• Comparison of the Proton Transfer Path in Hydrogen Bonds from Theoretical Potential Energy Surfaces and the Concept of Conservation of Bond Orders
• The Hydrogen Bond in the Solid State

Readership: Interested lay readers.
Keywords:Snow;Ice;Water;Hydrogen BondReview:

"The book is pleasant to read and should be appreciated by readers wondering about many aspects of snow and ice phenomena. In summary, disclosure and short scientific explanations are interpenetrated in this book which walks at the interphase between snow, ice and water, and focuses on their observations, aiming to be a broad scientific overview of water and its solid phases."

Acta Crystallographica B
Key Features:

• The book differs from most books on snow as it covers early, historical observations as well as present active research. Some of the snow pictures are unique and illustrate fundamental physical facts
• The beauty of snow crystals is amply illustrated, but basic facts about structure and properties are treated as well. Why does ice float on water? Why is the maximum density of water at +4°C?

	1
	There Are Many Different Types of Snow

Frozen water — snow and ice — appears in a myriad of different shapes and with properties which can be quite different. Detailed knowledge of the properties of snow is of great importance for the Sami people (Laplanders) involved in reindeer herding. A large number of names are used by the Laplanders to characterize the different types, and snow may still be a daily topic of conversation. In Yngve Ryd’s book (in Swedish) Snö: En Renskötare Berättar (Snow: A Laplander Narrates), more than 300 words for “snow” are documented with explanations and photos. The words describe for instance the amount of snow, consistency, gliding, buoyancy or melting.

In this book I will mostly use the term “snow crystal” for a single crystal, i.e. a sample which is continuous and has no boundaries (all parts of the crystal are extinguished simultaneously in polarized light). A fully developed dendritic snow crystal is, for example, a single crystal. All snow crystals (in my terminology) are transparent. As a snow crystal falls toward the earth, it will often hook onto other crystals in a random way and a snowflake is formed. A layer of snow looks white owing to repeated reflection of the light toward the randomly oriented snowflakes. In the literature the word “snowflake” seems to be used for all types — a single crystal as well as a random collection of snow crystals. A snow crystal is just ordinary ice, but ice with a special, mostly rather open structure. A large, more compact and irregular crystal is better named ice crystal (see photo on the left by Andrei Osokin).

	2
	Early Snow Crystal Observations

Snow has always fascinated mankind and is mentioned in a dozen places in the Bible. In Job 38:22–23 is written: “Hast thou entered into the treasure house of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasure house of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?” Hail is often considered to be punishment from God — in Revelation 16:21 is written: “And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.” (One talent was about 50 kg.)

To my knowledge, the first pictures of snow crystals were published in 1555 by Olaus Magnus in his famous Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the Nordic People, an assembly of essays in 22 volumes; Fig. 2.1). Owing to the Reformation in Sweden, he lived at that time in Rome together with his brother, Catholic archbishop Johannes Magnus. In exile he seems to have largely forgotten how snow crystals look and applied his fantasy.

It is commonly considered that it was the astronomer Johannes Kepler who, in his essay De Nive Hexangula, first established that snow crystals have a six-fold symmetry (Figs. 2.2 and 2.3). This conclusion appears to be based on his studies of the closest packing of spheres. In this context he had also been asked to solve a practical problem: how best to stack cannonballs on ships.

Fig. 2.1. Snow crystals drawn by Olaus Magnus.

Fig. 2.2. Johannes Kepler (1571–1630).

Fig. 2.3. Kepler’s book De Nive Sexangula
(On the Six-Cornered Snowflake), published in 1611.

The French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (Fig 2.4) made, during the unusually cold winter in Amsterdam in 1635, the first detailed observations of snow crystals, which were published in 1637 in his famous work Discours de la Methode (Fig 2.5). The pictures in Fig. 2.6 are found in the chapter “Les Meteores.” This may seem strange in a treatise dealing with snow, but Meteorology deals with all atmospheric phenomena, such as wind, storms, cyclones, rain, snow and hail.

Descartes was born at La Haye in Touraine, France. The village is nowadays named “Descartes,” in his honor. In 1649 he was invited to Stockholm by Queen Kristina to be her teacher and adviser, and to organize a new scientific academy (Fig 2.7). It has been said that Descartes considered Sweden a country where both people and thoughts froze to ice. The meetings were held early in the morning (at 5 a.m.) in the castle which was hardly heated and very cold and draughty. Descartes caught a cold and died of pneumonia on February 11, 1650, after only a few months in Sweden.

Fig. 2.4. René Descartes (1596–1650).

Fig. 2.5. Discours de la Methode (1637).

Fig. 2.6. Snow crystals observed by Descartes.

Fig. 2.7. Descartes and Queen Kristina.

Fig. 2.8. Robert Hooke’s Micrographia, published in 1665.

Many other scientists have also pondered on the mysteries of snow crystals. When the microscope was invented in the later part of 1600, the possibilities of studying snow crystals became much better. In 1665 the multidimensional scientist and polymath Robert Hooke published Micrographia: Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon (Fig 2.8). An imagined picture of Hooke at his desk is shown in Fig. 2.9 (no contemporary portrait has been preserved). A few of his drawings of snow crystals are shown in Fig. 2.10. Hooke remarked that the angle between the side branches is always 60°.

Fig. 2.9. Robert Hooke (1635–1703).

Fig. 2.10. Snow crystals drawn by Robert Hooke.

The eminent ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• Dedication
• Contents
• 1. There are Many Different Types of Snow
• 2. Early Snow Crystal Observations
• 3. Artificial Snow Crystals
• 4. Snow and Ice Crystals in Nature
• 5. Snow for Pleasure and Art
• 6. The Ice Surface and Formation of Ice Spikes
• 7. Structure and Physical and Chemical Properties of Water and Ice
• 8. Physical Properties of Water and Ice; Significance in Nature
• 9. The Water Molecule is Unique
• Reprints
• Name Index
• Subject Index