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Re: Snowflake symmetry



John Mallinckrodt wrote:

This list needs a new thread so ...

I wonder how many list members have ever thought about why
*individual*
snowflakes should be so extremely symmetric at the same time that
*different* snowflakes can be so extremely different.

I read somewhere recently that most real snowflakes are very
unsymmetrical. On the other hand, photographs of snowflakes are
symmetrical, since the rare symmetrical flakes are much more
photogenic. That makes sense; I can't think of any plausible mechanism
to tell one side of a snowflake the details of how the other side is
growing.
--
Maurice Barnhill, mvb@udel.edu
http://www.physics.udel.edu/~barnhill/
Physics Dept., University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716