Snowball
A
snowball is a ball of
snow, usually created by scooping snow with the hands and compacting it into a roughly fist-sized ball. The snowball is necessary to hold a
snowball fight. The pressure exerted by the hands on the snow is determinant for the final result. Reduced pressure leads to a light and soft snowball. A higher pressure cause the snow to melt, turning into liquid water. Once the pressure is removed, the water turns again into
ice, leading to a more compact and hard snowball, which eventually can be considered harmful during a snowball fight.
|
A medieval image from Italy of people using snowballs |
*Snowball fights are known to have been a
medieval pastime.[
1]
*
Ambrogio Lorenzetti (c. 1290 - 1348) depicts his personification of
winter as holding a snowball.
|
Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Winter |
*On
March 5,
1770, the pelting of occupying
British soldiers with snowballs eventually led to the
Boston Massacre, which helped eventually spark the
American Revolutionary War.
*In
1959 a
Yale student snowball fight on city streets got out of hand and resulted in arrests by
New Haven police. Students then pelted police officers with snowballs during the
St. Patrick's Day parade. The so-called "snowball riot" attracted national media attention and was a kind of
town-and-gown riot. (
Yale Alumni Magazine, March, 2001).
Students of
Michigan Technological University rolled the
World's Largest Snowball on
February 17 2006. It was 21
feet 3
inches in circumference (81 inches or 2.06
metres in diameter).
The snowball occasionally occurs as a
charge in
heraldry.
The comic strip
Calvin and Hobbes is infamous for its use of snowballs. In one of the books it describes how to make the perfect snowball.
These are some cartoons showing Calvin's great snow figure making ability.
