is it true that every snowflake is not the same?

Answer 1

no i mean like have you seen every snowflake.... but its random so its highly unlikely two would be the same, but they could be, theres a lot of snow

Answer 2

There is a widely-held belief that no two snowflakes are alike, but that claim has not been proven. Strictly speaking, it is extremely unlikely for any two objects in the universe to contain an identical molecular structure; but there are, nonetheless, no known scientific laws which prevent it. In a more pragmatic sense, it's more likely – albeit not much more – that two snowflakes are visually identical if their environments were similar enough, either because they grew very near one another, or simply by chance. The American Meteorological Society has reported that matching snow crystals were discovered by Nancy Knight of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The crystals were not flakes in the usual sense but rather hollow hexagonal prisms.

A common estimate is that a snowflake can appear in 10**158 forms, under the estimate that a snowflake has 100 attributes which can vary, resulting in 100! (factorial) forms. However, the number of possible snowflakes per the atomic structure would be based on the number of molecules, and the former number would be very, very large.

Answer 3

This is a quote from the source listed below:

Snowflakes are six-sided crystals composed of about 1018 water molecules, giving them unimaginable—but not infinite—potential for variation. In 1988, Nancy Knight, a meteorologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, discovered two identical snowflakes that had been collected from clouds above Wisconsin. The snowflakes apparently formed as conjoined twins.

Answer 4

Since a typical small snow crystal might contain 1018 water molecules, we see that about 1015 of these molecules will be different from the rest. These unusual molecules will be randomly scattered throughout the snow crystal, giving it a unique design. The probability that two snow crystals would have exactly the same layout of these molecules is very, very, very small. Even with 1024 crystals per year, the odds of it happening within the lifetime of the Universe is indistinguishable from zero.

Thus at some very pure level, no two snow crystals are exactly alike. An exception (why does there always have to be an exception?) would be a snow crystal with only a handful of molecules. If we assemble a crystal of only 10 molecules, for example, then it's not so unlikely that each of the 10 will contain two ordinary hydrogen atoms and one ordinary 16O atom. Furthermore, a cluster of only 10 molecules will only have a few likely configurations. So there's a reasonable probability that two 10-molecule snow crystals would be exactly alike.

Answer 5

Snowflake Bentley did thousands of photographs of snowflakes and it seems there are various types but he found no 2 the same. There are people continuing where he left off and it continues to be true. Check out this site: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/
Very cool! (so to speak!) LOL

Answer 6

A single snowflake is made up of many, many tiny ice crystals. The way that these crystals join together means that the chances of any two snowlflakes being identical are practically nil.

Like fingerprints - they're similar but no two are identical.

Answer 7

It is just very unlikely - they are a product of their conditions (temperature, humidity, pollution), so in theory, in the exactly same conditions you would get the same. Roughly speaking, high humidity (around -15°C) produces a formation with more branching, low humidity - more solid.
I'm not sure where our friend got the figure of 1018 water crystals - the longer they spend falling / forming, the bigger they come baby - so that makes for even more possibilities.

Answer 8

that is true, if your interested in things like that then you should read this book, The True Power of Water, by Mararu Emoto, its about a study of water and snowflakes changing when they are exposed to things like images and words. its crazy

Answer 9

Correct

Answer 10

Yes it form by the Crystal.