Thursday, February 3, 2011
Largest Snowball: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth students set world record
DARMOUTH, MA, USA -- It took about two hours for a group of University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth students (Wes Fowlks, Michael Parisi, Brian Hassett, Greg Dorman, Jimmy Tice, Mark McCulley, Kevin Donovan, Wes Meserve, Ben DeLuca and Andy Wu) to roll a massive 7-foot, 4-inch snowball on a field at the school; the ball has a circumference of 23 feet, 2 inches - setting the new world record for the Largest Snowball. Photo: The World's Largest Snowball and his creators: top:
Wesley Fowlks;
2nd Row (left to right): Mark McCulley, Ben DeLuca, Michael Parisi, Greg Dorman, Brian Hassett;
1st Row(left to right): Kevin Donovan, Andy Wu, Wes Meserve, Jimmy Tice. Photo: Laura Sawyer (enlarge photo)
The previous Guinness world record for the largest snowball was held by Galileo TV reporter Katrin Hess of Germany, who rolled a snowball with a circumference of 22 feet, 0.057 inches at Pitztal Glacier in Tyrol, Austria.
Guinness World Records also recognized the largest snowball fight; it was achieved by 5,387 participants, organised by Jong-Gi Park (Republic of Korea), the Mayor of Taebaek City, at the 17th Mt. Taebaek Snow Festival Main Event Hall, Mt. Taebaek, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea.
The World's Largest Snowball was measured by Dr. Nima Rahbar of the school's Civil Engineering Department.
One of the snowball's creators, Wes Fowlks, a Computer Science graduate student, estimated that the Largest Snowball in The World probably weighs about 6,195 pounds, if not more.
Fowlks said the giant snowball was actually the team's second attempt at the record because the first frosty sphere was destroyed by vandals before it could be officially measured.
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