21–29 of 29 posts
I don't understand how snowflakes are different to each other and yet also symmetric. Are they always symmetric?
The symmetry is imperfect.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The symmetry is imperfect.
I don't understand how they are even close to symmetric. The 'seed' seems unlikely to be symmetric. There is no way for one 'arm' to communicate directly with another. And the conditions (temperature etc) is unlikely to be completely uniform around that seed.
https://www.noaa.gov/stories/how-do-snowflakes-form-science-...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand how they are even close to symmetric. The 'seed' seems unlikely to be symmetric. There is no way for one 'arm' to communicate directly with another. And the conditions (temperature etc) is unlikely to be completely uniform around that seed.
> The ice crystals that make up snowflakes are symmetrical (or patterned) because they reflect the internal order of the crystal’s water molecules as they arrange themselves in predetermined spaces (known as “crystallization”) to form a six-sided snowflake. https://www.noaa.gov/stories/how-do-snowflakes-form-science-...
Thanks. But I'm still not convinced. If it is just that the microclimate around the seed is the same, why aren't adjacent crystals identical?
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 factoi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The ice crystals that make up snowflakes are symmetrical (or patterned) because they reflect the internal order of the crystal’s water molecules as they arrange themselves in predetermined spaces (known as “crystallization”) to form a six-sided snowflake. https://www.noaa.gov/stories/how-do-snowflakes-form-science-...
>Because each arm experiences the same atmospheric conditions, the arms look identical. Thanks. But I'm still not convinced. If it is just that the microclimate around the seed is the same, why aren't adjacent crystals identical?
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 factoi…
I don't understand how snowflakes are different to each other and yet also symmetric. Are they always symmetric?
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?