How to build the perfect snowman (740)
By Helen Thompson | Smithsonian.com
Building the perfect snowman can be difficult. Often snowmen can turn out a little lumpy or
lopsided. They can quickly melt into unrecognizable shapes. Suppose you decide to build one. It
helps to have science on your side.
Understanding the physical properties of snow can help you figure out whether a snowman is
even possible. Scientists classify snow based on its moisture content. That's the amount of free
water compared to ice crystals. Snow comes in five categories. Dry snow is 0 percent water.
Moist snow is less than 3 percent. Wet snow is 3 to 8 percent. Very wet is 8 to 15 percent. Slush
is more than 15 percent.
Moist to wet snow is ideal for snowman building. That's according to Jordy Hendrikx. She's a
snow scientist at Montana State University. Dry snow is like loose powder. Its particles don't
stick together well. Slush is too fluid to hold a shape. "You can think of the free water as the
‘glue.' You need enough to stick the crystals together, but not too much. Otherwise it won't form
a solid snowman," says Hendrikx.
The amount of water in snow depends on air temperature during a snowstorm. Wet and moist
snows fall at or around 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures that are far below freezing make
drier snow. More water particles freeze into crystals. "Years of experimentation and research
with my kids reveal a snow-to-water equivalence of about 5:1 yields the snow ideal for building
the perfect snowman," says Dan Snowman. He is a physicist at Rhode Island College in
Providence.
Moist or wet snow falls when it is just above or below freezing. Dry powder is more likely when
it is colder. Powder offers a soft, smooth ride that is ideal for skiing. But it is not good for
building snowmen.
The snow is on the ground. It's time to build your snowman. Spheres are the best building
blocks. Forming snowballs and packing the snow together creates pressure on the ice crystals.
The pressure makes some crystals melt. "After melting, the water will crystallize once again,
binding together the snowball," Snowman notes.
You want to keep the spheres from toppling. So stack them in the usual large to medium to small
structure. "Keeping the snowman's center of mass low is paramount in the construction of any
snowman," says Snowman. The center of mass is the point where the mass is concentrated. The
closer that point is to the ground, the less likely a structure is to fall over.
Students at Bluefield State College in West Virginia see snowman-building as a way to teach
basic engineering principles. They say the diameter ratio for the snowballs is 3:2:1 from bottom
to top. This ratio keeps the base large enough to support the combined weight of the top two
snowballs. And don't build your snowman too big. The water content of the snow may limit the
size of the spheres.
Building your snowman in spheres can also help it last longer. The shape reduces the surface
area exposed to rising temperatures. So it slows down melting. Unfortunately, melting is certain
as temperatures rise. Thanks to Frozen, we all know what happens to snowmen in summer.
Possible Response Questions:

Explain how moisture in snow acts like "glue," and explain why too much or too
little doesn't work.
 In this paragraph, which group of words gives clues to the meaning of "toppling"?
"You want to keep the spheres from toppling. So stack them in the usual large to medium to
small structure. "Keeping the snowman's center of mass low is paramount in the construction
of any snowman," says Snowman. The center of mass is the point where the mass is
concentrated. The closer that point is to the ground, the less likely a structure is to fall over."