Do you want to build a snow crystal?
Some science behind the hexagonal nature of these wintry, iconic shapes.
With winter comes the ever-anticipated first snow, signaling the true start of winter and the ever-wanted white Christmas.
As Kevin McCallister rightfully argues in Home Alone 2, no one wants to celebrate Christmas in a tropical climate (something to that effect…).
Well, apologies to my readers near the equator, but something about snow just adds to the season, almost like the icing on top of a wintry cake.
Of course, a white Christmas can be created without the help of the multitude of snowflakes that scatter about, decorating the land in a shroud of white fluffiness.
Apparently, care must be taken to differentiate between snowflakes and snow crystals. Snow crystals refer to the individual structures, whereas snowflakes refer more broadly to various collections of snow crystals.1
As we are taught in schools, and generally recognize as a truth in our older years, we learn that snow crystals tend to take on a hexagonal pattern, usually creating these beautiful and vast crystal structures.
But where do snow crystals get their hexagonal shape, especially given that now two snow crystals are alike?
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