how do snowflakes get their unique, and such beautiful shapes?
In: 7
The unique shapes are driven by a chaotic freezing process. The beautiful symmetry is in the eye of the beholder.
Water is a polar molecule which – if crystalline structures are allowed to develop – arranges into shapes with dominant angles of 60 and 120 degrees. That’s what gives you the six fold symmetry.
Exactly how the crystal grows controls the final shape. This will be impacted by really quite minor changes in humidity and temperature as the growing crystal gets moved around inside a cloud.
It really depends on the freezing process each snowflake is subjected to. It starts with a speck of dust in the air that allows the super cooled water in the atmosphere to crystalize. Then, depending on the humidity/water saturation, temperature, and a few other variables you get the shapes of a snowflake. The variables change very quickly where the snow is forming and that’s how you get the unique shapes from cones to 6 sided and complex flakes.
[https://youtu.be/ao2Jfm35XeE](https://youtu.be/ao2Jfm35XeE) Veritasium did a great video on it and the scientist he consulted with actually shows you how snowflakes form in real time.
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