Snowflakes

[Jantha]

Ok. I realize I'm opening myself up for some ridicule here.

 

I found this link of photos taken of snowflakes under a microscope. It just boggles my mind how intricate and symmetrical these things can be.

 

I thought I'd share it... some of them are pretty cool looking.

 

Do it...

[Versatile]

Art Beauty and Science all together

 

 

 

 

[ShredAstaire]

Mother Nature is one cool lady!!!

[sparky scott 29]

We have already see them up close and personal twice this year...

I may not be up in the mountains, but we had about 1-1/2... 2 inches last week.

[TommyK]

Who is this "Mother Nature" of which you speak.

 

When I was a fresh faced school boy, they taught me that no two snow flakes were identical.

 

I wondered, "How do they know?"

 

I was and have been dubious and doubtful of that assertion. :huh:

 

That is probably why my mother named me Thomas. \:D/

 

 

One of them looks like a sewing machine bobbin. It appears to be two 6 sided flakes connected by an axle. Way Cool.

[Riverside]

I've lived in Southern California for most of my years. No snow to speak of, although once or twice we got some white stuff on the ground.

 

I lived in Frankfurt Germany for a while as a kid. Saw a lot of cold and sleet, but mostly low-grade slush.

 

I've been to Louisville, KY as an adult several of the last ten years, in Late November, early December. Saw great huge snowflakes just like in the Charlie Brown TV shows.

 

Amazing.

 

Those things DO exist - but I'd have never believed it until I saw it for myself.

[L5Larry]

There seems to by a basic hexagonal structure to most. I'm sure there is a simple scientific explanation, I wonder what it is.

[craigh]

Snow is nice as long as one doesn't have to go out in it.

 

Craig

[EVOL!]

There seems to by a basic hexagonal structure to most. I'm sure there is a simple scientific explanation, I wonder what it is.

 

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think water is unique as a liquid because of the insanely strong Hydrogen/Oxygen bond. The symmetry of these molecules is what causes the beautiful shapes.

[NeoConMan]

Strong, stable bond indeed.

 

Water is a fascinating chemical in many respects, different temps and pressures make it do amazing things.

 

The more I learned about steam in the chemical plant/power plant/refinery biz, the more bewildered I became.

Superheating changes everything.

Few people realize there's such a thing as dry steam because they can't see it.

Wet steam blows apart boilers, turbines, piping - entire ships or plants.

 

Another oddity - most compounds shrink as they cool, and water does too.

Same for its gaseous form, steam.

Until it freezes, then it expands by nearly 10%.

 

Learning more about the scientific aspects of it made me appreciate it even more.

Still love seeing the big, floating "Charlie Brown" snowflakes settle in a calm atmosphere.

 

But I moved to Phoenix for a reason.

 

[TommyK]

If memory serves me, and sometimes it don't, Water is one of the few compounds that actually expands when it freezes.

 

That and the 2 Hydrogen molecules sit on the bigger Oxygen molecule at a specific, un-changing angle to each other. It kind of looks like a Mickey Mouse head with the H molecules being the ears.

 

It is this angle that makes the snow flakes form as they do. They sit at an almost perfect 60° angle to each other. This is precisely 1/6th of a circle. Therefore at the heart of every snow flake are 6 water moleclues fused to each other in a hex pattern. Remember I said 'Almost perfect 60° angle' It is this difference, my 8th grade Science Teacher told us, that causes the assembled molecules to expand, breaking glass containers that hold the frozen mass.