I hate racing in the rain. I find it frustraing runing a set of awesome bearings. I also don’t enjoy the new smell that my skates develop after a rain race.
The days of rain wheels, rain bearings, & drying out your boots could be numbered thanks to this clever idea that I would have never thought of; Operation Beijing storm: rockets target rain.
If race organizers could organize one of these systems to support each race, skaters will probably be more than happy. I wonder though by how much entry fees would go up?
‘Staff members from Beijing’s weather modification practice base stand next to a two-pipe canon used for rain reduction and cloud dispersion during a media presentation in Beijing, July 19, 2007. China is preparing an arsenal of rockets and aircraft to protect the Olympics opening ceremony from rain, hoping to disperse clouds before they can drench dignitaries at the roofless ‘bird’s nest’ stadium (Reinhard Krause/Reuters)‘
I’m no scientist. This is what I found about silver iodide here.
‘Silver iodide (AgI) is a chemical compound used in photography and as an antiseptic in medicine. Silver iodide is highly insoluble in water and has a crystalline structure similar to that of ice, allowing it to induce freezing (heterogeneous nucleation) in cloud seeding for the purpose of rainmaking.
The crystalline structure adopted by silver iodide changes with temperature. The following phases are known:[1]
- Up to 420K (147 °C), AgI exists in the β-phase, which has a wurtzite structure.
- Above 420K (147 °C), AgI undergoes a transition to the α-phase, which has a body-centered cubic structure and has the silver ions distributed randomly between 2-, 3-, and 4-coordinate sites.
- A metastable γ-phase also exists below 420K, which has a zinc blende structure.
In the television series The Batman, Poison Ivy used Silver Iodide to create rain, so that she could populate Gotham City with her new breed of plants, that assisted her in taking over the city‘.
Filed under: General
