Winter has passed, so more questions have appeared from the lovely environment that was once around us. One phenomenon being icicles. They form when the temperature is below thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit and precipitation falls.

  As most people are aware of, icicles are composed of ice. Their whole name actually gives you a clue what it’s made of, not how it got there in the first place. They never fall from the sky, but one night after it snows you find them hanging all over the place! Have you ever deliberated why?

  Well, to create icicles you have to have the proper setting. Initially, you need cold, wet weather. For example, on your snow-blanket-covered roof would work great. Then, you need the seamless amalgamation of under thirty-two-degree temperature and a pinch of sunlight.  You need this because for the icicle to form, the snow must liquefy to form water droplets. So, from the way gravity works, the water droplets go the edge of the roof, and as they drip they freeze again, creating a new base each time.

 The process doesn’t end here. To get the elongated, oblique, circular cone shape the sun has to continue melting the water, so the reedy piece of water slithers down the external part of the icicle. Once it touches the lowermost section of the icicle, it continues to refreeze the water, and increase the size. This happens for the reason that the under thirty-two-degree temperature “blankets” around the icicle. Since heat rises the “blanket” of cold air is denser at the topmost, so the icicle is the thickest there. The water droplets still keep streaming to the ground from gravity but the “blanket” gets thinner and thinner the lower it is, so it gets skinnier and skinnier.

 This development replicates continuously throughout the winter, as long the temperature and precipitation is appropriate, the icicle’s base gets thicker and the end gets thinner. When the current of water that initially started the whole progress ceases, the icicle can still modify.  If temperatures go below thirty-two degrees, the frozen water can transform unswervingly to water vapor causing the outside portion of the icicle to be suave and flat.

 To work out how this interesting development transpires, scientist have in recent times fashioned an unpretentious carefully worked-out calculation that also applies to a correspondingly designed thing with the similar configuration; the stalactite. This is very hard for scientist to wrap their head around, since their chemical composition and formation are very dissimilar. Additional scientist believe that this beautiful phenomenon cannot be deciphered as a mere mathematical expression, and many other factors actually construct it. Of course, the scientific community’s appetite for new knowledge never ceases, so the world can better understand how icicles come about.

Source: http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-are-icicles-formed