No Two Snowflakes Alike Is Probably True
Snow is frozen water vapour falling as crystals. The famous claim about flakes holds up.
Snow is water vapour frozen into crystals and falling as flakes. The claim that no two are identical is not just a saying: a large flake contains around a quintillion water molecules, and its shape is determined by the exact sequence of temperature and humidity it passed through, so the number of possible arrangements vastly exceeds the number of flakes that have ever fallen. Very small simple crystals can match, but complex ones effectively cannot. All snow crystals are six-sided because of how water molecules bond.
- Frozen precipitation. *Heavy snow.*
- To fall as snow. *It is snowing.*
- Snowflake. *A snowflake.*
- Snowy — covered in snow. *A snowy field.*
- Old English — *snaw*. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | snow | Snow. |
| Verb | snow | Snowing. |
| Adjective | snowy | Snowy. |
| Compound | snowflake | A snowflake. |
| German | Schnee | Snow. |
- Snow covered the road.Weather.
- Every flake has six sides.Structure.
- Snaw is the Old English form.Etymology.
Why snowflakes have six sides
- Water molecules bond at fixed angles when freezing
- That geometry produces a hexagonal crystal lattice
- Growth at the six corners is fastest, forming arms
- All six arms experience the same conditions, so they match
- Different flakes take different paths, so they differ
Old English *snaw*, of Germanic origin, related to German *Schnee* and Latin *nix*.
Are no two snowflakes really alike?
For complex flakes, effectively yes. The number of possible molecular arrangements far exceeds the number of flakes that have ever fallen.
Why do the six arms of a flake match?
Because all six grow through the same conditions at the same moment, while different flakes take different paths.