Portland dorm damaged by 800-pound snowball

Two math majors at Reed College lost control of a massive snowball that rolled into a dorm, knocking in part of a bedroom wall.

There were no injuries, but college spokesman Kevin Myers said Friday it will cost $2,000 to $3,000 to repair the building.

The incident happened last Saturday night following a rare trio of snowstorms in Portland.

Read more: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Math-majors-massive-snowball-gets-away-crashes-into-dorm-245581581.html

looks like someone made a slight mis-calculation.

Just a couple of degrees to the left, it would have missed the building.

Man - someone needs to work on their math. Not sure how you come up with 800 lbs.

The report says the diameter of the snow ball was 40 inches.

The radius would be 20 inches ---- or 1.67 feet.

The area (if it was perfectly round) would be 20 cubic feet.

Snow weighs about 15 pounds per cubic foot ---- so you get 300 lbs.

"snow" can have variable density, though - with a maximum density being the same as ice.

If the snow ball was ice (60 lbs per cubic foot), you get 1200 lbs --- so I suppose it's conceivable the snow ball was around 700 lbs if the snow ball was packed.

bailey bud wrote: Man - someone needs to work on their math. Not sure how you come up with 800 lbs.

The report says the diameter of the snow ball was 40 inches.

The radius would be 20 inches ---- or 1.67 feet.

The area (if it was perfectly round) would be 20 cubic feet.

Snow weighs about 15 pounds per cubic foot ---- so you get 300 lbs.

"snow" can have variable density, though - with a maximum density being the same as ice.

If the snow ball was ice (60 lbs per cubic foot), you get 1200 lbs --- so I suppose it's conceivable the snow ball was around 700 lbs if the snow ball was packed.

Thanks. So where do you look for the weight of snow per cubic foot?

civil engineers collect and publish proprietary information on the topic.

They use it to calculate (for example) load bearing requirements for roofs in places like Colorado.

The specifications are typically stated by "square feet" --- but that's actually multiplied by average depth (snow weight is per cubic foot).

In any event - snow weighs between 7 and 20 lbs per cubic foot. Use 15 as an average.

(and oh - I found an engineer's answer on wiki answers)

What really stumps me is how a scientific place like Reed College is still using standard, rather than metric units.

If I was between that snowball and the dorm 100 pounds + or - wouldn't be the first thing on my mind (or in my pants)! Good thing it wasn't bigger or rolling faster, the damage could have been a lot worse.

They should have put a couple of Physics majors in charge of the snow ball instead, they would have "done all of the math" before they let it loose.