(01-22-2025, 05:53 PM)F2d5thCav Wrote: And yet, if one holds snow in one's hand, it will melt. Not quickly, but it will melt. And a flame can't melt it? Hmm.
Cheers
A flame provides "too much" heat. It converts the snow directly from solid to vapor (sublimation) without going through the intermediary step of "liquid" due to the influx of excessive heating calories. Holding the snow in one's hand provides a lower temperature, fewer heating calories, allowing the snow time to progress through that intermediary step.
Atmospheric pressure will also have an effect on whether show sublimates or melts. I have seen snow sublimate from the power of sunlight alone (about 1400 kcal/m^2) when the atmospheric pressure was too low to hold it in a liquid state before vaporization.
Snow is not actually burning unless you can see a flame emanating from it when you remove the heat source.
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