Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Is anyone noticing the fake snow? I thought it was bullshit but…I went and got a snowball this morning and tried to melt it with a lighter. It turned black and didn’t melt. It felt like styrofoam. I told the grandkids not to eat it. Please let me know if anyone is experiencing this.
I know what you mean. WWG1WGA mentioned this in a video so I tried it. I compacted snow tightly and then used a lighter. Yeah, I fell for it too, a few years ago. It's actually a process called sublimation. The burning black is the gas that attaches to the snow from the lighter and burns. I'm from Phoenix so I did not grow up with snow, but I now live in snow country. My friend from Canada explained sublimation to me. Regular snow will melt, but when you compact it tightly, it's something to do with the lack of oxygen trapped inside.
What a trip. Sublimation. Interesting. I’m going to have to tell my kids. That doesn’t explain it not dripping whatsoever. It should be melting from me holding it in my hand. I did this again in the house in front of my husband and grandkids. It’s 71 degrees in here. In retrospect, if it is something man made, I shouldn’t have burned it in the house. I was shocked, obviously. I laid it out on the porch. It rained later and dissolved it .
The snow wasn’t that cold. The weather later turned into rain. It’s still raining now. That’s interesting, to say the least. I don’t never remember snow doing that but then again I wasn’t compacting it and attempting to melt it with a Bic. Anytime I’ve held a snowball, it always started melting in my hand right away. This did not. I picked up this burnt snowball a while later and smelled it. It smelled like plastic. It dissolved with the rain later. I obviously need to research this more. I appreciate your input, and u/stevethefish76. Thank you both. I’ll check out YouTube.
There are videos explaining sublimation on YT you can find, for sure. I'm sure if you just grab some snow and put it on your carpet inside and leave it there, it'll melt and make a wet spot. It's the process of compressing the snow and then trying to burn it is where sublimation is a factor.