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The highest-resolution photos of snowflakes (2021)

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: The highest-resolution photos of snowflakes (2021)

#2

Post by ggm »

I increasingly find the no two alike thing exasperating. Almost nothing in nature above the subatomic/atomic/molecule level is "alike" in crystals or anything else. Making BIPM spheres of counted atoms does not truly make them identical. Cubic crystals of salt will have differences.

At the level of detail most people can discern, I suspect many morphological forms of ice crystal are very alike, and we have to resort to the small imperfections to get to not alike.

Nothing is exactly the same. That's what discrete countable things are: distinct.

(Of course it's semantics. And poetic license. Most snowflakes are trivially unlike, and those which are nearly alike have discernible difference if you go looking for them. As do cells, flowers, grains of sand.. )

Re: The highest-resolution photos of snowflakes (2021)

#5

Post by topherclay »

ggm wrote: post #2

I increasingly find the no two alike thing exasperating. Almost nothing in nature above the subatomic/atomic/molecule level is "alike" in crystals or anything else. Making BIPM spheres of counted atoms does not truly make them identical. Cubic crystals of salt will have differences. At the level of detail most people can discern, I suspect many morphological forms of ice crystal are very alike, and we have to resort…

That's a fun thought experiment: to imagine what level of detail of snowflakes most people are able to discern.

Reminds me of a little bit of that one xkcd.

https://xkcd.com/2501/

Re: The highest-resolution photos of snowflakes (2021)

#8

Post by behnamoh »

ggm wrote: post #2

I increasingly find the no two alike thing exasperating. Almost nothing in nature above the subatomic/atomic/molecule level is "alike" in crystals or anything else. Making BIPM spheres of counted atoms does not truly make them identical. Cubic crystals of salt will have differences. At the level of detail most people can discern, I suspect many morphological forms of ice crystal are very alike, and we have to resort…

Do we have evidence or proof about "no two alike" or is it more like an educated guess?

Re: The highest-resolution photos of snowflakes (2021)

#10

Post by j4yav »

ggm wrote: post #2

I increasingly find the no two alike thing exasperating. Almost nothing in nature above the subatomic/atomic/molecule level is "alike" in crystals or anything else. Making BIPM spheres of counted atoms does not truly make them identical. Cubic crystals of salt will have differences. At the level of detail most people can discern, I suspect many morphological forms of ice crystal are very alike, and we have to resort…

There's a whole class of factoids where it seems some people are unable to resist bringing it up even when the connection to the current discussion is quite tenuous, and a reactionary set of people who are unable to resist a stock reply to the mention (which varies depending on the topic, but generally it's an "actually" calling out some exception to the first statement). In reality, everyone has read both the factoid and the stock reply a million times.

It would be interesting to document and track these. They are almost like little autonomous programs that run on people's consciousness, which I guess is a just a meme per the original definition.

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