Today I bring to your attention a new competitive work, where Tanya and her mother in a playful way studied natural phenomena that amazed all mankind with their beauty and charm for many centuries. Now it has become possible to create frosty patterns on glass with your own hands together with small children.
But first, I will share with you information about how everything happens in natural conditions. A small children's poem will help kids understand the essence of the phenomenon.
Fairy tale on glass
Frost on the glass
I drew a pattern
Silver applied
White lush pine forest.
Early in the morning
I'll go to the window
I will be in that forest
Listen to silence.
And shivers in the darkness
White smoke of birches -
A fairy tale on glass
I drew frost.
T. Shorygina
How frosty patterns form on window panes in winter
By their nature, winter patterns on glass are the same frost as on tree branches or on the ground. When the air temperature drops, humidity always decreases. At zero temperature, the water freezes, the condensate of air moisture settles on cold glasses in the form of ice crystals, that is, it immediately passes from a gaseous state to a solid one.
Since dust collects on the surface of any glass, there are cracks, scratches, the ice pieces that have settled on them, stacking on top of each other, form bizarre patterns. Most of the moisture accumulates in its lower part due to the force of gravity, therefore, frosty drawings in those places are thickened, and in the upper part of the windows only thin patterned lines are visible, or in general the glass does not freeze there.
In order to get frosty patterns on glass, two conditions are required simultaneously:
1. The presence of moisture in the air
2. Cold glass surface, below 0 degrees.
Modern plastic windows, if properly installed, do not fog up inside, have reliable thermal insulation and no gaps between the glass and the frame. Therefore, they do not freeze in winter if they are not opened for ventilation. Have you noticed what colorful patterns frost paints on the glass surfaces of loggias and balconies? And how do the bottles with water, put in the refrigerator, fog up in stores during the hot season?
If one of these factors is missing, no patterns will simply work. In natural conditions, the direction of the wind is also important, which contributes to the rapid growth of ice crystals, so that they increase in volume that the glass ceases to be transparent.
Knowing the physical explanation for the formation of winter patterns on windows, you can learn how to make frosty patterns on glass with your own hands. There are many different ways to do this, and I will try to tell you about some of them today.
How to make frosty patterns on glass yourself
1. The first method is familiar to many from the time of their childhood, when everyone painted on the windows with tooth powder or paste. It is absolutely safe for children, everything is easily washed, even shines after that better than before. You can use not only a brush, but also a spray bottle, spraying a solution of white paste on the glass.
2. The other option I like is simple and clear. To do this, you need to take 50 g of magnesia purchased at a pharmacy, dissolve in 100 g of light beer, and then grease clean glass with a sponge or cotton pads with a ready-made solution. To make the liquid dry faster, it is convenient to use a hair dryer. After a few minutes, you will see crystals forming a pattern on the flat surface. This option is more suitable for schoolchildren and adults.
3. Take 40 hyposulfite, dissolve in a half glass of water, then lubricate the glass surface. After drying, you will get an opaque dense pattern, reminiscent of the natural beauty on the windows in a headwind. By repeating a simple experiment, you will know how to make frosty patterns on glass yourself, as if by magic.
4. With young children it is better to use this method. First, attach the stencil to the glass and apply glue with a sponge. On top, let the baby sprinkle baking soda, vanillin or powdered sugar with a cosmetic brush. Children's delight is guaranteed, and safety is respected.
5. Zinovievs Ksenia and Tatiana, who sent their personal experience of conducting an experiment to the competition, will tell us about another method:
To make frosty patterns on glass with our own hands, we needed to take:
5 g dry gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
A piece of glass
Freezer.
Experiment progress:
Add a teaspoon of gelatin to a glass of water.
You have to wait for it to swell
then heat in a water bath until the gelatin crystals are completely dissolved.
After the solution has cooled, pour it onto the glass and put it in the freezer.
The next day we take out and admire the resulting frosty patterns.
We got them like this.
This idea was suggested to us by Tatiana Pirozhenko in the magazine "My mother - Vasilisa", we played with pleasure, and also shared our photos by sending them to the competition "" in the nomination young researcher. So we thank them.
Write, have you tried with your children to make frosty patterns on glass with your own hands? Share your secrets with your readers, because different methods allow you to create unique masterpieces that imitate natural beauty, grace and fantasy.
So the first frosts have begun, winter will come soon and it will become even colder, but this is no reason to be sad. Indeed, at this time of year, you can see many beautiful creations of nature, for example, frosty patterns on the window glass.
If you look closely and turn on a little imagination, then in these patterns you can see flowers, trees, snowy plains, stars, fern thickets and simply beautiful curls of various shapes.
What frosty patterns are made of
The patterns on the glass are composed of ice crystals and, in essence, are the same as the well-known frost that appears on grass and trees.
Where do frosty patterns on glass come from?
There is nothing supernatural in the process of forming patterns; this is ordinary physics. The fault is water, which, as you know, can be in three states: solid, liquid and gaseous. At the moment when the air temperature drops below zero degrees, and there is a sufficient amount of moisture in the air, it begins to condense on cooled surfaces.
The patterns are formed due to the fact that the window glass is not perfectly even, there are microcracks, scratches, dust particles on it, as well as traces of touch. It is around all these irregularities of the glass that ice crystals begin to grow and grow the more intensively, the more moisture in the surrounding air.
How to draw frosty patterns
With your own hands, you can depict a beautiful frosty pattern on the window glass in several ways:
- We'll need white toothpaste and brushes. Dissolve the toothpaste in water and spray the glass with a spray bottle to make it matte. Next, dip the brush into toothpaste slightly diluted with water and draw shapes on the glass with light strokes that imitate real frosty patterns. If there is no talent for the visual arts and it turns out badly, you can use stencils.
- We buy 50g at the pharmacy. magnesia and dissolve it in 100g. light beer. With the resulting solution, using a sponge or cotton pad, we lubricate it on cleanly washed glass. Further, in order to speed up the drying process, you can blow on the glass with a hairdryer.
A selection of photos with frosty patterns on glass
On frosty days, stunning ice patterns appear on the windows in the form of extraordinary stars, bizarre curls, fabulous trees and flowers. In order for ice gardens to bloom on the windows, it is necessary that the air in the room be humid, and outside the window there is a sub-zero temperature.
Why do frosty patterns appear on the window
Everyone remembers the parable that Santa Claus draws frosty patterns on the window. He invisibly sneaks up to the window at night and displays on it with a thin ice brush unique frosty pictures. In fact, everything is much more prosaic. If the air in the room is humid, and outside the temperature is from zero degrees Celsius and below, then excess moisture condenses on the cold surface of the glass. Here the water vapor cools and goes from a vaporous state to a solid, forming fine crystals.How ice crystals form
Any glass that looks perfect has microscopic notches and scratches. Moisture that settles on the surface of the glass crystallizes first of all on these tiny defects, and only then new and new ones cling to the first crystals, forming patterns. Sometimes for the appearance of ice patterns, there are enough dust particles that dot the surface of the glass, or stains that remain after washing the windows. Drafts and air currents also contribute to the appearance of patterns. By the way they are formed, frosty patterns are divided into two types: dendrites, which are branched patterns that resemble trees, and trichites, which are more like stars.Tree patterns dendrites
Dendrites form at the bottom of the glass, where the water layer is thicker. Here wide trunks of frosty patterns appear, on which thinner twigs gradually grow. Dendrites in the lower part of the glass are wide and thick, and in the upper part they are narrower and thinner. Such a frosty pattern resembles a thicket of an impenetrable fairy forest.Star-shaped trichite patterns
If there are a lot of jags, dust particles and scratches on the glass, then trichites appear on it - frosty patterns similar to stars. First, the epicenter of the pattern freezes - a speck of dust or a notch, and then other crystals, like rays, join it. As a result, frosty patterns become like a cluster of snowflakes or. When the temperature outside the window drops, trichites form dense ice filaments.When patterns on windows don't appear
If the air humidity in the room is low, and the window has good thermal insulation, then condensation does not form on the glass and frost patterns do not appear. That is why the ice paintings, which are so familiar to residents of houses with old wooden windows, do not spoil the appearance of residents of apartments with high-quality plastic windows.But now I live in a house where there can be no frosty patterns - because of the modern double-glazed windows. From the point of view of an architect and builder, frosty patterns, although beautiful, speak of a serious flaw in the house, leaking windows. I agree: double-glazed windows are of course a great convenience. But ... How so: winter and without frosty patterns! Of course they can still be found here and there, for example, on buses or trolleybuses, but this is not like at home, when you look at the street from comfort and warmth through this icy magical garden! I really wanted to arrange for my daughter a winter fairy tale from my childhood and I found on the Internet a way to create artificial frosty patterns, which is sometimes used to decorate store windows. A little experimentation - and we succeeded! Of course, these patterns are not so subtle and graceful, but they recreate the atmosphere wonderfully! And such patterns are not afraid of the sun. Now I feel like a sorceress.
Here's a look at what happened! And at the same time I will tell you how to repeat our experience with my daughter.
How a natural frosty pattern appears on the windows:
How to make an artificial frosty pattern with your own hands:
Take 50 grams of magnesium sulfate (It is also magnesium or epsom salt. This is a laxative that is sold in pharmacies.)
Dissolve magnesium sulfate in 100 ml. regular beer. (Stirring and waiting for about 15 minutes)
After the foam completely dissolves and settles, if it was, take a current paint brush and apply the mixture on clean, degreased glass - from the inside, from the side of the room. Since the crystals of patterns are formed only on a flat surface painted with a solution, it is worth paying special attention to the edges of the patterns - to draw them subtly and naturally. When dry, "frosty patterns" appear - crystals. If you don't like something, the pattern can be easily corrected by washing it off with a window cleaner. Handmade designs are very easy to remove.
Be sure to make sure that children do not try the solution, do not touch the patterns with their hands! It's still a laxative. This way of drawing patterns is suitable for families with children over 5 years old, or people without children. Or you need to make these patterns high, where they are inaccessible to children.
In some sources, I found that beer can be replaced with boiled water with the addition of a tablespoon of diluted gelatin. However, this method did not work out for us - gelatin in any quantities curdled in a solution of magnesia and gave the desired effect - stabilization - in a very weak form. I also read about recipes for frosty patterns with sodium thiosulfate (also a medicine) or with photographic fixer. But we have not tried these methods yet, especially since, they say, the pattern comes out more dense and white. We really liked our patterns this time. Combined with frost outside the window, Tatiana's upcoming day and all the delights of winter, they create a wonderful mood!
The ice patterns on the windows are a sight of rare beauty.
On cold, frosty days, if you have to travel by bus or trolleybus, do not rush to thaw and wipe the frozen glass.
There is no less interesting on the glass than behind it. All these beautiful patterns, similar to painted Christmas trees, seem to be similar to each other, but when you look, you will not see the same. Each pattern is special. Now large straight branches, then rounded, then small needles ran in different directions. Every glass is a new pattern.The most curious thing is that frost draws these patterns with our help. Warm humid air exhaled by people, in contact with very cold glass, freezes and turns into ice crystals. It is they who form a complex pattern.
It's easy to check. If you thaw frozen glass with your palm and then breathe on it, you can see how the needles of ice crystals grow. And they always run to the sides at the same angle! When ice needles meet each other, they grow together, forming a pattern consisting of many crystals. 
In cold rooms, frosty patterns will also form on the glass windows. But there ice crystals settle out of the air without the help of people. The air always contains water vapor - a colorless and invisible gas. Frost only cares what to draw with it.
If you are observant, you will notice that the frosty patterns are colored: sometimes blue - in cloudy weather, then yellow - in the sun, then pink and purple - at sunset. Just have time, sketch!
Long ago, people determined the weather by frosty patterns:
if the branches of the patterns were directed downwards, the weather will be snowy and cloudy;
if up - clear and sunny.
Also, according to folk signs, straight drawings portend even greater colds, oblique ones - thaws, and more intricate patterns - to snowfall.
It’s hard to believe that all this was painted without the help of human hands. It is impossible to take your eyes off these intricate art of the consummate master. The further you look at the drawings, the more you are surprised at the skill of an unknown artist, whose name is Moroz. These amazing pictures can be viewed and viewed, and each time to see something new. Here is a magic tree, there is a peacock's tail, a long branch of a palm tree, a fluffy spruce. Here a wonderful flower has blossomed. And on the other window there are fabulous animals.
It is especially beautiful when a sunbeam falls on the window, then the whole picture sparkles. Observing the snow patterns, I noticed that they are colored: sometimes blue in cloudy weather, then yellow in the sun, then pink and purple - at sunset. In the evening, when it gets completely dark outside the window and the glass looks black, frosty patterns sparkle like stars.
Patterns do not appear on the window if the window is open. In this case, the temperature of the air in the room near the glass decreases, becoming the same as the temperature of the glass itself. With high-quality glass sealing, patterns on the glass also do not appear, because no temperature difference.
Everyone knows that patterns on glass are short-lived - the sun begins to warm up and frosty patterns become less distinct, blur and flow down the glass in streams of water. They disappear irrevocably.