Why are no two snowflakes alike?
Each one is a frozen autobiography of its journey through the clouds.
The answer
A snowflake's shape is determined by the exact temperature and humidity conditions it encounters as it falls through the atmosphere. Since each crystal follows a slightly different path, tumbling through microscopic variations in temperature and moisture, each develops a unique pattern of branching and faceting. A typical snowflake contains around 10 quintillion water molecules, and the number of possible arrangements is astronomically large - far exceeding the number of snowflakes that have ever fallen on Earth.
Source: American Chemical Society
- snowflakes
- crystallography
- weather
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