View Single Post
  #4 (permalink)  
Old 13-December-2007, 04:58 PM
RGClark RGClark is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 548
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by neilzero View Post
How can single water vapor molecules form ice, if they rarely pass within a milimeter of each other, even at 100 degrees k? Neil
Formation of condensed water in clouds is complicated and still being studied, but what often happens is that solid dust particles act as "condensation nuclei" which allows the water molecules to freeze onto the surface of the particles. The ice particles then grow larger as more water molecules freeze onto the growing ice particle.


Bob Clark
Reply With Quote