Microscopic time lapse of snowflake formation (mic)

Well it seems like there is a point of origin because their sort of is. It looks like the snowflake is forming out of the ether because what is happening is the water vapor in the air is coming in contact with the frozen water and it switches states. Essentially it takes less energy for the molecule to be part of the snowflake than a gas so it latches on.

This process usually begins around some sort of impurity. A water molecule latching on to something else in the air, and then another molecule latching onto that one. The shape of the starting molecules determines much of the end branching.

A way to sort of simplify how this all happens is to look at buckyballs. See the hexagon pattern it makes? That's really just due to the properties of a round object with two poles. You can arrange them into many shapes (a square for instance). But once the pattern takes shape the nature of the individual parts results in more and more complexity.

A bucky ball is a sphere. Water looks like this. What sort of structures would you be able to build with buckyballs that look like that?

The reason that they branch out the way they do is a quirk of the molecule and conditions. Snow HAS to form higher up than we live. This is because in order to form in this shape it needs certain conditions. Frozen water will fall in other forms and it's essentially a snowflake without this order.

Higher in the air it's colder (Less energy so things are closer and more likely solid). But there is also low pressure. So the water molecules ONLY attach if they fit REALLY well. If they are a partial fit then they bounce off and remain airborne, it takes more energy than is available. The result is a structure that is built with a pattern supported by the environment of the molecules and the structure of them. So lower down there is way more pressure. If it's cold enough to freeze then the water is pressed together more. It gets to be less choosy about the energy state because instead of getting bounced off it gets hammered into place by OTHER molecules. Making it a mess structurally. The extra energy to fit into the spot is provided by the motion of molecules around it. Absent at higher altitudes.

It's like the difference between crystals and stones. They might be made of the same materials but the conditions that form them determine their structure. Crystals are based on the unique structure of the molecules. They only form when the conditions allow the molecules to come together in a orderly fashion. Too much or too little Heat and pressure will chain the responses and bring them out of that sweet spot.

Fractals form from repetition. The reason snowfakes form like that has to do with a very neat trick involving the shape of the water molecule and the temperature and pressure of our atmosphere. It's possible for water to freeze not in this shape you are right but then we don't also refer to it as a snowflake. Ice pellet, sleet, hail etc.

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