Familiar to every schoolchild, the statement that there are no two identical snowflakes has been repeatedly questioned. But the unique studies of the Californian technological university were able to put an end to this truly New Year's issue.
Snow forms when microscopic water droplets in clouds are attracted to dust particles and freeze.
The ice crystals that appear in this case, which at first do not exceed 0.1 mm in diameter, fall down and grow as a result of condensation of moisture from the air on them. In this case, six-pointed crystalline forms are formed.
Due to the structure of water molecules, only 60° and 120° angles are possible between the rays of the crystal. The main water crystal has the shape of a regular hexagon in the plane. New crystals are then deposited on the tops of such a hexagon, new ones are deposited on them, and thus various forms of snowflake stars are obtained.
Professor of physics at the University of California, Kenneth Libbrecht, published the results of many years of research of his scientific group. "If you see two identical snowflakes– they still differ! says the professor.
Libbrecht proved that for every five hundred oxygen atoms with a mass of 16 g/mol, there is one atom with a mass of 18 g/mol in the composition of snow molecules.
The structure of the bonds of a molecule with such an atom is such that it implies an innumerable number of options for compounds inside crystal lattice.
In other words, if two snowflakes really look the same, then their identity still needs to be verified at the microscopic level.
Learning the properties of snow (and snowflakes in particular) is not child's play. Knowledge about the nature of snow and snow clouds is very important in the study climate change.
Have you ever heard the phrase “this snowflake is special”, they say, because there are usually a lot of them and they are all beautiful, unique and fascinating, if you look closely. Old wisdom says that no two snowflakes are the same, but is it really true? How can you even declare this without looking at all the falling and fallen snowflakes? Suddenly a snowflake somewhere in Moscow is no different from a snowflake somewhere in the Alps.
To address this issue with scientific point view, we need to know how a snowflake is born and what is the probability (or improbability) that two identical ones will be born.
Snowflake taken with a conventional optical microscope
A snowflake, at its core, is just water molecules that bind together in a specific solid configuration. Most of these configurations have some sort of hexagonal symmetry; this is due to the way water molecules with their specific bond angles- which are determined by the physics of an oxygen atom, two hydrogen atoms and electromagnetic force - can communicate with each other. The simplest microscopic snow crystal that can be seen under a microscope is one millionth of a meter (1 micron) in size and can be very simple in shape, for example, a hexagonal crystal plate. It is about 10,000 atoms wide, and there are many like it.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Nancy Knight of the National Center for Atmospheric Research happened to discover two identical snowflakes while examining snow crystals during a Wisconsin blizzard while carrying a microscope. But when representatives certify two snowflakes as identical, they can only mean that the snowflakes are identical for microscope accuracy; when physics requires that two things be identical, they must be identical down to the subatomic particle. Which means:
- you need the same particles
- in the same configurations
- with the same connections
- in two completely different macroscopic systems.
Let's see how this can be arranged.
One water molecule is one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms bonded together. When the frozen water molecules bind together, each molecule gets four other attached molecules nearby: one at each of the tetrahedral vertices above each individual molecule. This causes the water molecules to fold into a lattice shape: a hexagonal (or hexagonal) crystal lattice. But large "cubes" of ice, as in quartz deposits, are extremely rare. When you look into the smallest scales and configurations, you find that the top and bottom planes of this grid are packed and connected very tightly: you have "flat edges" on two sides. The molecules on the remaining sides are more open, and additional water molecules bind to them more randomly. In particular, hexagonal corners have the weakest bonds, which is why we observe sixfold symmetry in crystal growth.
and the growth of a snowflake, a particular configuration of an ice crystal
New structures then grow in the same symmetrical patterns, building up hexagonal asymmetries after reaching a certain size. In large, complex snow crystals, there are hundreds of easily distinguishable features when viewed under a microscope. Hundreds of features among the roughly 1019 water molecules that make up a typical snowflake, according to Charles Knight of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. For each of these functions, there are millions of possible places where new branches can form. How many such new features can a snowflake form and still not become another of many?
Every year around the world, approximately 10 15 (quadrillion) cubic meters of snow fall on the ground, and each cubic meter contains on the order of several billion (10 9) individual snowflakes. Since the Earth has existed for about 4.5 billion years, 10 34 snowflakes have fallen on the planet throughout history. And do you know how many, statistically speaking, separate, unique, symmetrical branching features a snowflake could have and expect a twin at a certain point in the history of the Earth? Only five. Whereas real, large, natural snowflakes usually have hundreds of them.
Even at the level of one millimeter in a snowflake, you can see imperfections that are difficult to duplicate.
And only at the most mundane level can you mistakenly see two identical snowflakes. And if you're ready to get down on molecular level the situation will become much worse. Oxygen usually has 8 protons and 8 neutrons, while hydrogen has 1 proton and 0 neutrons. But 1 out of 500 oxygen atoms has 10 neutrons, 1 out of 5000 hydrogen atoms has 1 neutron, not 0. Even if you form perfect hexagonal snow crystals, and you counted 10 34 snow crystals in the entire history of planet Earth, it will be enough to go down to size several thousand molecules (less than the length of visible light) to find a unique structure the planet has never seen before.
But if you ignore the atomic and molecular differences and abandon the "natural", you have a chance. Snowflake researcher Kenneth Libbrecht of the California Institute of Technology has developed a technique to create artificial "identical twins" of snowflakes and photograph them using a special microscope called the SnowMaster 9000.
Growing them side by side laboratory conditions, he showed that it is possible to create two snowflakes that are indistinguishable.
Two nearly identical snowflakes grown in a Caltech lab
Almost. They will be indistinguishable to a person who looks with his own eyes through a microscope, but they will not be identical in truth. Like identical twins, they will have many differences: they will have different molecular binding sites, different branching properties, and the larger they are, the greater these differences. That's why these snowflakes are very small and why the microscope is powerful: they are more similar when they are less complex.
Two nearly identical snowflakes grown in a Caltech lab
Nevertheless, many snowflakes are similar to each other. But if you are looking for truly identical snowflakes on a structural, molecular or atomic level, nature will never give you this. Such a number of possibilities is great not only for the history of the Earth, but also for the history of the Universe. If you want to know how many planets you need to get two identical snowflakes in the 13.8 billion years of history of the universe, the answer is on the order of 10. Given that there are only 1080 atoms in the observable universe, this is highly unlikely. So yes, snowflakes are indeed unique. And that's putting it mildly.
The wind picked up and the snowflakes swirled.
Children perform movements in accordance with the text.
We are snowflakes, we are fluffs, We are not averse to spinning. We are ballerina snowflakes, We dance day and night. Let's all stand together in a circle - It turns out a snowball. We whitewashed the trees, Covered the roofs with fluff, Covered the earth with velvet, And saved us from the cold.
I. p. - feet shoulder-width apart, arms freely raised up, hands relaxed. Shaking the brushes, turn the body to the left, return to and. n. The same - in the other direction. Children are spinning, smoothly moving their hands.
4. Maze "Help the lost snowflakes find each other" (Fig. 28, appendix).
Look at the snowflakes painted on the leaves above and below. Find the same.
Help identical snowflakes find each other. Start drawing from top to bottom.
5. The task "Find a pair for a snowflake" (Fig. 29, appendix).
Children are given cards with 4 different snowflakes and 2 identical ones.
Find identical snowflakes and tell where they are located.
6. Task "Make a snowflake" (from geometric shapes).
Children complete the task according to the instructions of the teacher:
Put a blue circle in the center of the flannelograph; above, below, to the right, to the left of the circle put white triangles; between triangles - blue rectangles; Lay out a circle around your figure with chopsticks. Got a snowflake.
Make your own snowflake and tell us what geometric shapes it consists of, where which detail is located.
7. Children decorate the group with snowflakes cut out in class, after discussing where they will place them.
8. Summing up.
Lesson 11. "Inhabitants of the winter forest" Program content:
1. Develop children's active use of spatial terms (for, before, etc.).
2. Strengthen children's understanding of the obscurity of images.
3. Develop logical thinking, memory.
Equipment: demonstration material - a magnetic board with drawings of trees (summer and winter versions), color images of wild animals; drawings with "Tangra"; handout - cards with tasks; stencils of wild animals, trees, sheets of paper, simple pencils, scissors, paper squares for the task "Tangram".
Vocabulary work: wild animals, wolf, hare, fox, bear, elk, hedgehog, den, burrow.
Course progress.
The teacher invites the children to compete.
Attention! Attention! The competition begins! Who will name the most forest stars
Ray, that winner!
Children name animals (wolf, fox, hare, etc.). The teacher at this time arranges pictures of the named animals on a magnetic board with green trees. The winner is determined, he - as the best expert - is given the next task. If the child does not cope, the others help him.
Which of these animals we will not meet in winter forest? (The bear is sleeping, the hedgehog is sleeping, the hare
becomes white them. P.)
On a magnetic board, green trees are changed to winter ones and excess animals are removed.
1. Task "Find who is hiding in the winter forest?" (Fig. 30, appendix).
Children are invited to look at the illustration, find and name all the animals depicted on it.
Why are only parts of animals visible in the picture? Tell me where they are hiding.
What is in front of them?
2. Labyrinth "Find where whose trace is."
Snow fell in the forest. Animals running in the snow leave many footprints. All traces of perep
thawed.
Children are given cards with the image of animals: foxes, hare, crows - and their footprints. From each animal to its trail there is a tangled line, the lines are confused with each other.
3. Fitness minute. Mobile game "Bunnies".
Children perform the corresponding movements.
Hares jump:
Jump, jump, jump...
Yes to white snow
Sit down - listen
Is the wolf coming?
They stamped their feet,
hands clapped,
Right, left leaning
And they returned back.
Here is the secret of health!
To all friends - physical education greetings!
4. Task “Place the animal stencils the way I say. Tell me which of the animals and where is it.
5. The teacher reads to the children a poem by V. Levanovsky:
What is a hundred meters for a hare? Like an arrow, it flies obliquely! This is what it means to train with a fox trainer.
About what in question in this poem? (The fox wants to catch the hare.)
The fox always wants to catch the bunny, but she rarely succeeds. Why do you think? (The hare runs fast.)
He not only knows how to run fast - he knows how to confuse the tracks. The bunny never runs along a straight path, he runs between trees and bushes and this confuses the fox.
Labyrinth "Help the bunny run to his mink" (Fig. 31, appendix).
Tell me how the bunny went.
6. Task "Tangram".
Cut the square along the lines, from the resulting figures, fold the chanterelles according to the pattern "(Fig.
32, app.).
7. Summing up.
Lesson 12. "Visiting a fairy tale" "Program content:
1. Improve the ability of children to navigate in microspace.
2. Improve the ability of children to determine and verbally indicate the direction of movement.
3. Develop fine motor skills of the hands.
Equipment: demonstration material - two cards with the image of fantastic animals; handout - cards for tasks, simple pencils.
Vocabulary work: fairy tale, magic, fiction, fantasy, Baba Yaga, Frog Princess, Ivan Tsarevich.
Course progress.
The Russian people have collected many wonderful fairy tales in their piggy bank. What? (“Swan Geese”, “The Frog Princess”, etc.) Why do people compose fairy tales? (Children's answers.)
People compose fairy tales to tell them to their children, to teach them to see good and evil. No wonder in fairy tales evil is punished, and good wins. The tale teaches wisdom and that good in return gives birth to good. A person must pay for his mistakes, actions, desires, and only kindness and love will make life happier. For a fairy tale, nothing is impossible, with one word or gesture, objects, animals come to life in it, and miraculous transformations take place. Miracles are also happening today, we received a letter from Baba Yaga.
The teacher reads the letter: “Well, guys! Have fun in your life kindergarten? Sing, dance! Live together! But I'm alone in the forest, oh how bored! And I decided to play a trick on you and bewitched all the tasks! Decide - well done, but do not decide - I will conjure everyone! Your Baba Yaga.
1. Task "Name the animals."
The teacher shows the children two cards, each depicting two enchanted beasts. Each of them consists of two parts that do not correspond to each other. The children are asked to say which animals they recognized in the pictures. (Snake and deer, cow and lion.)
2. Task "Name the animals and tell me in which part of the sheet they are drawn."
Children are shown a picture in which parts of the body of animals are drawn (from a pig -
ears and a piglet, from a rooster - paws and a tail, from a hare - ears, from a cat - mustaches and ears).
3. Fitness minute. Mobile game.
Children play with Baba Yaga.
Baba Yaga, a bone leg, Fell off the stove, Broke her leg, Went to the garden, Reached the gate.
Baba Yaga catches up with the children. Whom he touches with a broom (hand), he freezes. The game ends when all children freeze.
4. Task "Draw the forest" (Fig. 35, appendix).
Children receive individual cards, draw the missing details, and then tell how they are located.
5. The task "Connect the dots in order" (Fig. 33, appendix).
What fairy tale is this item from? ("Princess Frog".)
In which direction is the arrow flying? Draw an arrow flying up, right, down, etc.
6. Task "Draw the second half of the crown for Ivan Tsarevich."
Children are offered cards with the image of half of the crown. Children explain how to draw "teeth" on the crown:
First we draw the pencil up to the right, then down to the right.
Then finish the second half of the crown on their own.
7. Labyrinth "Help Ivan Tsarevich reach the swamp" (Fig. 34, appendix).
Each child pronounces the path of Ivan Tsarevich. The teacher encourages children for correct answers.
8. Summing up.
Lesson 13. "Workshop of Santa Claus" Program content:
1. Improve the ability of children to navigate in microspace (on a sheet, on a board).
2. To learn to independently arrange objects in the named directions of microspace, to verbally indicate the location of objects.
3. Teach children to determine the direction and location of objects that are at a considerable distance from them.
4. Develop fine motor skills of the hands. Develop imagination, attention.
Equipment: demonstration material - a drawing of a Christmas tree on a magnetic board;
a drawing with a sample of a Christmas tree toy, a drawing "Santa Claus with bags of gifts"; handout - cards with tasks; pencils, colored pencils, scissors = scissors.
Vocabulary work:New Year, Christmas, Christmas tree, gifts, Santa Claus, Snow Maiden, miracles, Christmas tree decorations, garlands.
Course progress.
The teacher reads to the children a poem by Y. Kapotov:
On our Christmas tree - funny toys: funny hedgehogs and funny frogs, funny bears, funny deer, funny walruses and funny seals! We are also a little funny in masks. Santa Claus needs us to be funny, So that it would be joyful, so that laughter could be heard, After all, everyone has a fun holiday today.
What holiday is coming soon? (New Year.) We are all preparing for the holiday, sewing New Year
costumes, prepare gifts for friends and family, decorate Christmas trees and our homes. Preparing for
holiday and Santa Claus. Today we will go to the workshop to Santa Claus and also
we will help him.
1. Task.
How is the tree decorated? Where are the cones, flags, balls located on the Christmas tree? Draw garlands, decorate the top of the Christmas tree.
Draw a gift under the tree that you want to receive for the New Year (Fig. 36, appendix).
2. The task "Make toys" (Fig. 37, appendix).
Children are shown a sample of a ball decorated with an ornament of geometric shapes (triangles, circles, etc. alternate). Cards with the image of a ball and a flag are distributed.
Design your own ornament on a ball of geometric shapes.
Draw a snowflake on the flag.
Color and cut.
3. Fitness minute. To the music “A Christmas tree was born in the forest”, children dance, depict the heroes of the song.
4. Task "Hang the toy on the Christmas tree, where I say."
The child is invited to “hang up” the toys made on the Christmas tree, located on a magnetic board, according to the verbal instructions of other children. All children complete the task.
5. Task.
Children are given cards with the image of dots, numbered from 1 to 10. If you connect the dots, you get a star.
Connect the dots in order. Cut out what you got.
Find a place for the received object on the Christmas tree. Tell me where you hung the star.
6. Task "Help Santa Claus find the missing toy."
Children are shown a picture of Santa Claus and two bags of gifts. Five toys are drawn on one bag, four similar toys are drawn on the other, one toy is missing. A toy (a real object), similar to the missing one, is located in the group at a considerable distance from the children (3-4 meters).
What toy is missing? Find this toy in the group and tell where it is
located.
7. The task "Wonderful bag".
Santa Claus asked to thank the children for their work and sent a bag with gifts.
Guess - your gift (gifts - balloons, pencil, candy, etc.).
8. Summing up.
Lesson 14. - "Winter fun" Program content:
1. Improve the ability of children to navigate in microspace (on a board, sheet).
2. Learn to describe the location of an object using spatial terms
(near, about, etc.).
3. Learn to model the simplest spatial relationships using chips.
4. Improve the ability of children to move in a given direction, maintain and change the direction of movement.
5. Develop attention, eye.
Equipment: demonstration material - the plot picture "Winter fun", a map of the forest; handout - cards with tasks; path schemes, simple pencils, sheets of paper, chips.
Vocabulary work: fun, winter sports, hockey, skating, skiing, sledding, downhill skiing, snowballs.
move classes.
The teacher invites the children to listen to the recording of the song “If there was no winter” (element by Yu. Entin, music by E. Krylatov).
If there were no winter In cities and villages, We would never know These merry days ...
What fun days is this song talking about? (About winter days when you can play
on the street.) What do children play during a walk in winter? (Skate, ski, sled,
play snowballs, etc.)
1. Task.
On the board is the plot picture "Winter Fun".
Children are asked to tell what the children located in the center of the picture are doing (in the center of the picture there is an ice rink, children are playing hockey), then about those guys who are depicted in the upper right corner (the guys are playing snowballs) - thus, the whole picture is described.
2. Task “Tell me what is drawn in the foreground, background and in the center of the picture
"Winter fun".
The picture is conditionally divided into foreground, central part and background. The teacher discusses with the children what is located on each part of the picture. For example: front
children are drawn with sleds, they are going to slide down the mountain, in the center of the picture there is a skating rink, on the rink the guys play hockey, etc.
3. Task.
Use the chips to lay out the model of the picture: place the chips on the flannelgraph so that
how the children are located on it.
4. Fitness minute. Mobile game "Snowballs".
Children crumple a sheet of paper into a ball - “snowballs” are obtained. "Snowball" must hit the target from the game "Darts" or any other target.
5. Task "Describe your path."
The teacher invites the children to imagine that they are going skiing in the forest. And so that they do not get lost, he introduces them to a map of the forest (Fig. 38, appendix) and gives each one his own path plan (Fig. 39, appendix). Children are invited to draw a path to the base in accordance with their path scheme.
Then the teacher invites the children to take turns walking in the same directions in the group space, indicating the direction of movement in speech.
6. Task "Find a pair of gloves" (Fig. 40, appendix).
The cat Kotofey loves to play snowballs, he was going to go for a walk, but he can't find
a pair for my glove. Help Kotofey find two identical gloves. Tell me where
they are located.
7. Maze "Pick up partners in figure skating" (Fig. 41, appendix).
Then the children are invited to team up in pairs and reproduce the pose of a pair of skaters.
8. The teacher makes riddles for children and talks about what kind of winter entertainment for children
likes more than anything.
Rushing like a bullet, I'm forward, Only the ice creaks, Yes, the lights flash! Who is carrying me? (Skates.)
I took two bars of oak, Two iron rails, I stuffed planks onto the bars. Give me snow! Ready... (Sled.)
9. Summing up.
Lesson 15. "Electrical appliances" (household appliances)
1. Develop children's spatial imagination: teach them to mentally imagine themselves
in the place that an object occupies in space.
2. To consolidate the ability of children to navigate in microspace (on a sheet, on a flannelgraph).
3. Train visual functions - discrimination, localization and tracking. Once-
develop logical thinking, memory.
Equipment: demonstration material - cards with the image electrical appliances and household items; cards with the image of the kitchen, bathroom, hall, nursery, bedroom; handout - task cards, simple pencils, individual flannelgraphs.
Vocabulary work: electricity, electrical appliances, household appliances, vacuum cleaner, electric kettle, iron, automatic washing machine, TV, tape recorder, computer.
Course progress.
The teacher turns on the light and asks the children what he is doing.
Who knows why the light bulb turns on, what helps it burn so brightly? (Electric
stvo.) Is it possible to meet electricity in nature? (Lightning.) Lightning is an electrical
cue rank.
The teacher asks the children if they felt a slight crackle on themselves, and sometimes even sparks? (Yes, sometimes things “click” when you undress.)
This is also electricity. Sometimes you can hear the crackling of synthetic clothing when you take it off. Sometimes the comb sticks to the hair - and the hair "stands on end." Things, hair, our body are electrified. Our group also has electricity. By what signs can you guess the presence of electricity? (Sockets, wires, lamps, tape recorder, etc.)
Electricity is now in every home. This is our very first assistant. All electrical appliances work with the help of electricity. Many years ago, people did not know that electricity could be used. It was difficult for a person to cope with domestic problems. Let's go back in time for a few minutes and see how people managed without electricity.
Maria Evgenievna Eflatova
Purpose of the game: development of visual perception, teach how to put together a whole image from parts; develop thinking, speech, enrich vocabulary.
For the game, cut out a few snowflakes of various shapes(older children can do it themselves, glue the finished snowflakes onto cardboard and dry under pressure. (to make sure the pictures are straight) Then we cut the pictures into several parts. (depending on the age and skills of the child)
Game progress:
View Image snowflakes, talk about what's the same no snowflakes. Then notice the "broken" snowflakes"Look, a strong wind blew, snowflakes twisted and broke. Let's collect" snowflakes"Invite the child to find the missing half. Fold the two parts together - they should join into a whole image. Let the child find and fold all pairs of cards. After the game, you can play flying snowflakes, spin around, blow on each other.
Related publications:
"Help the penguins make out snowflakes" In order for a child to be taught to distinguish colors or to consolidate knowledge of colors, different ones are needed.
New Year's Eve is the most favorite holiday for children, and many adults. Children are happy to prepare for the meeting of Santa Claus. Teach.
I made snowflakes, 200 pieces, cut out of printer paper three colors, identical, from squares with a side of 10 cm, connected 5 pieces each.
Winter. Winter is three long winter months: a snowy December, a frosty sunny January and an angry February with blizzards. Winter nature is submerged.
Here is such a wonderful, bright and easy-to-make snowflake I got. It consists of several snowflakes of different sizes.
Fairy tales about snowflakes."Magical winter miracle". Snowflakes are dancing: Flying and whirling, In the sun on a frosty day they are silvering. Openwork dresses, carved scarves. Magic.
Here comes the long-awaited winter. The charm of the first snow. Soon New Year and Christmas. White snowflakes swirled in the air. I wanted to.
Quite a bit remains until the brightest holiday - the New Year, which means that New Year's creativity is in full swing. How many interesting.
The pioneer of the study of the "theory of snow" was the young farmer Wilson Alison Bentley, nicknamed "Snowflake". From childhood he was attracted unusual shape crystals falling from the sky. In his hometown Jericho in the northern United States, snowfalls were a regular occurrence, and young Wilson spent a lot of time outside, studying snowflakes.
Wislon "Snowflakes" Bentley
Bentley adapted a camera to a microscope given by his mother for his 15th birthday and tried to capture snowflakes. But it took almost five years to improve the technology - only on January 15, 1885 was the first clear picture taken.
Throughout his life, Wilson has photographed 5,000 different snowflakes. He never ceased to admire the beauty of these miniature works of nature. To obtain his masterpieces, Bentley worked in sub-zero temperatures, placing each whole of the snowflakes he found against a black background.
Wilson's work has been praised by both scientists and artists. He was frequently invited to speak at scientific conferences or exhibit photographs in art galleries. Unfortunately, Bentley died at the age of 65 from pneumonia, without proving that there are no identical snowflakes.
The baton of the "theory of snow" was picked up a hundred years later by Nancy Knight, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. In a paper published in 1988, she proved the opposite - identical snowflakes can and should exist!
Dr. Knight tried to reproduce the process of building snowflakes in the laboratory. To do this, she grew several water crystals, subjecting them to the same processes of supercooling and supersaturation. As a result of the experiments, she managed to get snowflakes absolutely identical to each other.
Further field observations and processing of experimental errors allowed Nancy Knight to assert that the occurrence of identical snowflakes is possible and is determined only by probability theory. After compiling a comparative catalog of celestial crystals, Knight concluded that snowflakes have 100 signs of difference. So the total number of options appearance is 100! those. almost 10 to the 158th power.
The resulting number is twice the number of atoms in the universe! But this does not mean that coincidences are completely impossible - Dr. Knight concludes in his work.
And now - new research on the "theory of snow". The other day, professor of physics at the University of California, Kenneth Libbrecht, published the results of many years of research by his scientific group. “If you see two identical snowflakes, they are still different!” - says the professor.
Libbrecht proved that for every five hundred oxygen atoms with a mass of 16 g/mol, there is one atom with a mass of 18 g/mol in the composition of snow molecules. The structure of the bonds of a molecule with such an atom is such that it implies an innumerable number of options for compounds within the crystal lattice. In other words, if two snowflakes really look the same, then their identity still needs to be verified at the microscopic level.
Learning the properties of snow (and snowflakes in particular) is not child's play. Knowledge about the nature of snow and snow clouds is very important in the study of climate change. And some of the unusual and unexplored properties of ice can also find practical applications.
