Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Volga bomb here. Olympic Games are being
Speaker 1: held in Beijing, China and its surrounding areas, which is
Speaker 1: actually a little strange given that the annual snowfall for
Speaker 1: the site of the National Alpine Ski Center gets just
Speaker 1: over eight inches. That's twenty one of snow a year,
Speaker 1: but the venue requires more than forty two point three
Speaker 1: million cubic feet or one two million cubic meters of snow.
Speaker 1: That means a lot of artificially produced snow has been
Speaker 1: shooting out of snow cannons onto the mountain sides so
Speaker 1: that there's enough of a blanket for skiers and snowboarders
Speaker 1: to compete. In fact, is the first Winter Olympics to
Speaker 1: rely almost entirely on fake snow. That's not as terrible
Speaker 1: as it might sound, since Olympic level athletes are used
Speaker 1: to gliding across fake snow. A many ski resorts use
Speaker 1: fake snow to open the slopes early and extend the
Speaker 1: season's well into spring, especially now that climate change is
Speaker 1: affecting ski seasons around the world. In the United States,
Speaker 1: for example, temperatures are up across of the nation with
Speaker 1: the highest temperature increases happening during the winter. Warmer winters
Speaker 1: mean less snow in many regions, and they also mean
Speaker 1: that the snow that does fall often melts a little
Speaker 1: during the day, then develops a crust of hard ice
Speaker 1: overnight that makes more less than ideal skiing and snowboarding,
Speaker 1: and it's really rotten if you fall down. Because these
Speaker 1: athletes have so much experience with different kinds of snow,
Speaker 1: they can definitely tell the difference between human made snow
Speaker 1: and the real deal. A fake snow can feel stickier
Speaker 1: than real snow, so athletes may use a harder wax
Speaker 1: on their skis and snowboards to help them glide across
Speaker 1: the surface. The fake snow is also firmer and harder packed.
Speaker 1: A natural snow, on the other hand, feels smooth as
Speaker 1: gears speed down the slopes and snowboarders drop into half pipes.
Speaker 1: The difference in the feeling comes down to how the
Speaker 1: snow is made and how it reaches the slopes. A
Speaker 1: natural snow is about ten percent ice mixed with about
Speaker 1: nine air, whereas human made snow is thirty ice and
Speaker 1: sevent air. Snow that's made in clouds far above the
Speaker 1: ground has those signature pointy crystals, then falls from the
Speaker 1: sky and on its way to Earth, forms large fluffy
Speaker 1: snow flakes with lots of air in each flake. Man
Speaker 1: made snow has a rounded crystals because of the velocity
Speaker 1: of being shot out of a snow gun. That shape
Speaker 1: means that the flakes will be denser, with less air
Speaker 1: between the crystals. Human made snow also only falls several
Speaker 1: feet before it hits the ground, rather than hundreds or
Speaker 1: thousands of feet, so the crystals don't have time to
Speaker 1: form fluffy flakes even if they could. The airy nature
Speaker 1: of natural snow means that it melts faster, whereas human
Speaker 1: made snow holds up better if it rains, But fake
Speaker 1: snow does get icier faster, which can be particularly tricky
Speaker 1: when you're racing for the gold medal. That's another reason
Speaker 1: that athletes train on as many kinds of snow as possible.
Speaker 1: But no matter what kind of snow is on a mountain,
Speaker 1: it's going to be groomed by machine before major competitions.
Speaker 1: Often a base of denser human made snow will be
Speaker 1: laid down before any natural snow falls, but it's not
Speaker 1: a perfect process. The two kinds of snow are usually mixed,
Speaker 1: so athletes need to be ready with their training and
Speaker 1: their wax for any kind of condition. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article will Beijing Athletes now fake snow
Speaker 1: from real snow? On how stuff Works dot com written
Speaker 1: by Kristen Hall Geisler. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com and
Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Klang and Ramsey Out. For more
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