Screenshot/TikTok/@omgchrissy1980
Some people are lighting snowballs on fire because they think snow is fake. This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s just a common scientific process called sublimation. The “triple point” is where all three phases of a substance can all exist.
Unprecedented winter storms in southern states have made those most affected by the weather pretty tense over the last week. But we can’t say we saw this one coming: New viral videos show TikTok users holding lighters to snowballs to stoke conspiracy theories about “fake snow” they say has been seeded by—wait for it—global environmental philanthropist and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.
Yeah. It’s a lot.
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In the videos, people hold open flames from lighters and other implements directly up to hardpacked snowballs. The snowballs don’t appear to melt, but instead, they burn. “No water, no dripping, no nothing,” says one woman, who believes there’s metal inside the snow, and that Gates is somehow to blame. (Warning: This video contains explicit language—and Popular Mechanics certainly doesn’t condone using the term in this tweet to describe the good people of Texas.)
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So what’s really happening here? The truth isn’t something sinister—it’s just science.
This post was originally published by Popular Mechanics on . Please visit the original post to read the complete article.