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Snow Day Physics

Thursday's snowstorm caused a buildup of around a foot of powder snow in my yard. Although this type of snow is excellent for winter sports like skiing and snowboarding, I found that it was not conducive to the [easy] building of any sort of snow structure. Therefore, I elected to wait until Sunday to use the snow. Allowing the snow to sit had the effect of hardening it due to its partial melting and freezing with the change of temperature throughout the days. This enabled me to construct a snow fort out of makeshift bricks made be cutting snow with a shovel. Below are two side views of the structure. 










The bricks were stacked to form walls around a hole that I dug into a pile of snow in my yard. This lengthened my structure and allowed it to comfortably fit a person of my size and fully shield said person from the elements as shown below. 
It should be noted that although the picture reveals my head protruding from the fort, I was able to fit my entire body in without exposing anything. 

I created the roof of my structure by placing a small sheet of plastic over the snow bricks and covering the sheet with snow to strengthen the protection. The fort provided shelter from the wind and was slightly warmer than outside. A jacket would still be recommended for any wishing to reside in it however. 



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