Killer Snowballs | Science of Stupid

welcome to the science of stupid
Christmas grotto and as you can see we
have spared literally no expense with
the decorations but what would really
make my Christmas would be to wake up on
the big day – a fresh dusting of snow
nothing beats that gentle caress of
snowflakes on your face yeah in the
right conditions that soft fluffy stuff
that falls from the sky feels more like
concrete but what if we stick to rolling
our snowballs much more pleasant right
okay I think we’d better see some
science roll a snow ball down a hill and
it gains mass as it picks up snow which
compacts as it rolls making it denser
the more mass or speed the snowball has
the more momentum
it’ll have if the snowball hits someone
it’ll transfer some momentum to them as
it loses momentum sorry but it’s the law
of conservation of momentum now before
we start rolling there is something else
you should know about density freshly
fallen snow is soft and fluffy but if it
melts and rephrases some of it turns to
ice which is just 8% less dense than
water and just as heavy but rather more
solid so you’ve got a mitt full of snow
now for momentum find yourself a nice
slope and roll away but please be
careful
believe it or not rolling one-ton
snowballs can be very dangerous see what
I mean more mass equals more momentum
now that one appears to have a lot less
momentum but it’s increasing to about
the same as a motorbike doing 22 miles
an hour hmm