Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Geometry, Algorithm and Identical Snowflakes

‘’Several factors affect snowflake formation. Temperature, air currents, and humidity all influence shape and size. Dirt and dust particles can get mixed up in the water and affect crystal weight and durability. The dirt particles make the snowflake heavier, and can cause cracks and breaks in the crystal and make it easier to melt. Snowflake formation is a dynamic process. A snowflake may encounter many different environmental conditions, sometimes melting it, sometimes causing growth, always changing its structure’’. Geometry and geometry rules are what we use to describe, ‘dismantle’ the snowflake. If we were to describe the process of its formation, geometry wouldn’t help.

Geometry is what we use to describe its form but geometry has almost nothing to say about the way it is created, and formed. The formation of a snowflake is such a multi-parametric, non-linear process –an algorithm- that no matter how many times it is run, never will two identical snowflakes will be formed. We may consider two snowflakes as identical, maybe because our eyes can read/recognize/identify only major differences in shapes, disregarding the slight differences. But snowflakes are in fact always non-identical as they have varying precise number of water molecules and ‘’spin of electrons, isotope abundance of hydrogen and oxygen’’ [I ‘ve no idea what these are; I found it on a chemistry website].

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