WEBVTT - Is Every Snowflake Really Unique?

0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.920
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey

0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:11.280
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren vogel Bomb. Here consider the long and

0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:16.360
<v Speaker 1>arduous plight of the snowflake. Those delicate, intricate crystals have

0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.880
<v Speaker 1>traveled many miles before they plummet to the ground alongside

0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:23.920
<v Speaker 1>their trillions of cousins, And although they fly in multitudes,

0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:26.479
<v Speaker 1>the word on the snow slipped street is that no

0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:31.200
<v Speaker 1>two are exactly alike. But can every snowflake really be different?

0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:35.400
<v Speaker 1>The short answer is yes, every snowflake really is unique,

0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:39.000
<v Speaker 1>but you might find some that are exceedingly similar, particularly

0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:41.920
<v Speaker 1>at the beginning of a flake's development. But fully formed

0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:46.000
<v Speaker 1>snowflakes are indeed structurally different, if only by the tiniest

0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:52.600
<v Speaker 1>of degrees. Understanding why snowflakes take unique forms means understanding

0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:55.520
<v Speaker 1>how they're formed in the first place. It all starts

0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:59.040
<v Speaker 1>at Earth's surface, as water evaporates from oceans, rivers, and

0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:01.680
<v Speaker 1>lakes and rise into the atmosphere in the form of

0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.720
<v Speaker 1>gaseous water vapor, which we sometimes see as clouds. In

0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.120
<v Speaker 1>the summertime, those clouds drift around the skies, providing shade

0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:13.319
<v Speaker 1>and breaking up the blue horizon. But in winter things change.

0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.120
<v Speaker 1>The cold air forces molecules of water vapor into little

0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:21.480
<v Speaker 1>liquid droplets that condensed onto any nearby particulate matter such

0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:25.560
<v Speaker 1>as pollen or dust. These tiny ice crystals are the

0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:29.720
<v Speaker 1>baby virgins of what soon may become full grown snowflakes.

0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.080
<v Speaker 1>The crystals float through the sky and collide with molecules

0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.760
<v Speaker 1>of water vapor. As vapor contacts the crystals, the water

0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.760
<v Speaker 1>vapor skips from its state as a gas straight to

0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:44.400
<v Speaker 1>a solid crystal, adding to the original nucleus of the snowflake.

0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.960
<v Speaker 1>This process happens over and over again, building the snowflake

0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.800
<v Speaker 1>from a nearly imperceptible crystal into a larger flake that,

0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.760
<v Speaker 1>given the right conditions, falls to the ground. And knowing

0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.160
<v Speaker 1>all of this, it may still be difficult to believe

0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.080
<v Speaker 1>that in a sky full of snowflakes, no two are alike,

0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:06.559
<v Speaker 1>but the flake making process practically ensures that these tiny

0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.800
<v Speaker 1>crystals are all unique, even when they fall by the billions.

0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.360
<v Speaker 1>As the very first ice crystals come together in a

0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:18.560
<v Speaker 1>group of fledgling snowflakes, the new flakes often look strikingly similar.

0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.960
<v Speaker 1>That's largely due to the fact that ice crystals typically

0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.160
<v Speaker 1>take a hexagonal or six sided lattice shape because of

0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.120
<v Speaker 1>the way that hydrogen atoms bond with oxygen to make water,

0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:32.320
<v Speaker 1>but certain edges of the ice crystals will be jagged.

0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.600
<v Speaker 1>These uneven areas attract more water molecules than the smoother

0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.320
<v Speaker 1>parts of the hexagon. Each little arm will sprout more

0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:44.080
<v Speaker 1>of the same, growing into an intricate and uniform snowflake.

0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:49.280
<v Speaker 1>If snowflake development stopped within the first few moments of birth,

0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.960
<v Speaker 1>we'd wind up with a lot more flakes that look alike.

0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:56.160
<v Speaker 1>But snowflakes keep gathering more and more crystals, which clustered

0:02:56.200 --> 0:03:00.320
<v Speaker 1>together on top of one another indistinct patterns. As those

0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.720
<v Speaker 1>clusters of crystals continue their snowflake fiesta, other guests visit

0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:09.800
<v Speaker 1>the flake making party. Notably, humidity and temperature both play

0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.480
<v Speaker 1>major roles and whether the snowflake gets bigger and bigger

0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:17.200
<v Speaker 1>or fizzles out. As you can probably imagine, temperature is

0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:22.200
<v Speaker 1>critical to ice crystal formation and structure. Between temperatures of

0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.560
<v Speaker 1>twenty seven and thirty two degrees fahrenheit that's negative two

0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.760
<v Speaker 1>point eight and zero celsius a, crystals take on a

0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.880
<v Speaker 1>plate like or prism like appearance. These are your prototypical

0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.360
<v Speaker 1>six armed snowflakes that don't have a lot of extra pizzas.

0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.200
<v Speaker 1>Drop the temperature a few degrees though, and you'll see

0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:44.160
<v Speaker 1>needle like structures starting to form a little lower and

0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:49.520
<v Speaker 1>hollow columns develop, and even colder, you'll see stars sprouting

0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:55.240
<v Speaker 1>fern like arms. Meanwhile, lower humidity tends to result in

0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:59.840
<v Speaker 1>flatter flakes. Higher humidity means more crystal development in edges

0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.280
<v Speaker 1>on corners. So add some extra moisture at those really

0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:09.600
<v Speaker 1>frigid temperatures, and suddenly snowflakes may become mesmerizingly beautiful. They

0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:12.920
<v Speaker 1>can contain a multitude of intersecting plates and needles and

0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:19.160
<v Speaker 1>spaces a minute masterpieces falling from the heavens. Okay, So,

0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:23.479
<v Speaker 1>physics and weather conditions determine snowflakes shape and size, but

0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:28.440
<v Speaker 1>math determines that those flakes are unique. Consider that each

0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.800
<v Speaker 1>snowflake is made up of a huge number of water molecules.

0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:36.520
<v Speaker 1>By one estimate, as many as a quintillion molecules per flake.

0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:41.440
<v Speaker 1>Because each little branch of a snowflake can spawn many others,

0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.640
<v Speaker 1>there are dozens and dozens of ways for various crystalline

0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.440
<v Speaker 1>features to join. There are so many possible arrangements that

0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.679
<v Speaker 1>some scientists say there are twice as many possible crystal

0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:56.320
<v Speaker 1>combinations as there are atoms in the whole universe. Those

0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.080
<v Speaker 1>kinds of numbers are so large that we can't really

0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:03.039
<v Speaker 1>even comprehend them. But if the math holds, those numbers

0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.640
<v Speaker 1>mean that it is awfully unlikely that any two snowflakes

0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:12.080
<v Speaker 1>have ever been, or ever will be exactly alike. Furthermore,

0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:14.400
<v Speaker 1>there are all kinds of other factors at play in

0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:18.760
<v Speaker 1>snowflake formation. At any given instance. Even the tiniest fluctuation

0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:23.560
<v Speaker 1>and temperature and humidity alters crystal construction a miniature. Impurities

0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.359
<v Speaker 1>like flux of dust change the crystals too. The angles

0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.040
<v Speaker 1>with which water molecules collide with existing crystals matter as well,

0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.800
<v Speaker 1>and snowflakes smash into each other as they zoom and

0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:39.120
<v Speaker 1>swoop through the air, where their branches shatter new one's form,

0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:44.080
<v Speaker 1>adding to the uniqueness of every translucent little flake in

0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:47.640
<v Speaker 1>the swirling atmosphere miles above Earth's surface. All of these

0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:52.520
<v Speaker 1>variables ceaselessly change. Conditions that hold in one small space

0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:55.520
<v Speaker 1>are just a tiny bit different than those inches away

0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:59.280
<v Speaker 1>in any direction, and all of it transforms crystals and

0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:04.719
<v Speaker 1>their subsequent snowflakes in infinite ways, so snowflakes really are

0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:09.640
<v Speaker 1>nearly unlimited in their specialness. They're tiny and ephemeral testaments

0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.560
<v Speaker 1>of the strange and constant change in the world and

0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:20.560
<v Speaker 1>universe all around us. Today's episode is based on the

0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:23.960
<v Speaker 1>article is every snowflake Actually Unique? On how stuff works

0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:27.080
<v Speaker 1>dot com? Written by Nathan Chandler. Brainstuff is production by

0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.320
<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com,

0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.400
<v Speaker 1>and it's produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts for

0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.560
<v Speaker 1>my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:37.479
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.