The science of snowflakes - Maruša Bradač

One could say that snowflakes are simply frozen water — but if you compare a snowflake to an ice cube, you’ll notice a big difference. Why are all snowflakes six-sided? Why are none of them exactly the same? And how do we ski on them? Maruša Bradač sheds light on the secret life of snowflakes.

Lesson by Maruša Bradač, animation by bottomless well films.

[DayzO]

the narrator explanation is so calm yet so full of knowledge.

[toreshi]

Isn't anyone going to comment on the beautiful artwork?!

[marcorodvas]

**cries because i've never seen the snow** :(

[lucaspascal]

Excellent video and beautifully explained. Usually I get distracted halfway of these kind of videos, but I was completely hooked on this one thanks to simplicity and well designed line of thought. Grats :)

[mbanana]

they're crystalline, they have a definite pattern so you sure as hell can find two snowflakes exactly alike

[wunderkind]

yay! a new Ted ed. It was super interesting. This was awesome.

[cooldudeg]

Actually, in 1988, two identical snowflakes were in fact found in a Wisconsin snowstorm.
Finding twins is still incredibly unlikely though.

[WonderfulAkari]

Pro-Tip hold your breath when you look at snow-flakes. I didn't realize that snowflakes were 6-pointed in real life because as a kid I had bad eye-sight (Before I got glasses) so in order to look at them I had to move close and my breath would melt them before my eyes focused.

[nachoboy]

Watching this and realizing that you live in a tropical country

[SgtSupaman]

The only reason you are unlikely to find two exactly alike is simply due to the large amount of possibilities of snowflake shapes, the massive amount of snowflakes, and the short lifespan of all those snowflakes. It would be impossible to search through them all to find matches. However, there do exist snowflakes that are extremely similar to each other (which could be called "exactly alike", though that could depend on the scale). In fact, a scientist found two identical snowflakes in their samples, viewed by microscope, over 30 years ago.

[Interpause]

The chance for similar snowflakes, taking into account all the factors like temp, humidity, wind, wind direction, temp and humidity differences across small areas, bumping into others and a lot more, it is kinda really really small.

[ShawnRavenfire]

I'm still not sure why the snowflakes are symmetrical.  Why can't a snowflake form that's still six-sided, but with one branch forming differently than the other?  And if it's due to atmospheric conditions, then why doesn't the snowflake immediately next to it form the same way?

[joshiifruit]

It's amazing to know that each snowflake is unique. To top this all off, science couldn't even explain why this is so. Nature is truly brilliant. Goes to show how much we still don't know.

[dave]

I love this video, explains the shape of hydrogen bonds and how they share elections very well. I'm going to forward this to my science teacher.

[MystalurDimensh]

Now it makes me wonder why it forms a flat structure, not a one in which its arms go in different Z axis.

[UltimateBreloom]

What is this snow you speak of? My Christmas will be a chilly 72 F this year...

[araxamas]

1:59 Is this why when you have a wet finger, and touch the surface of water, the water appears to cling onto the finger?

[Andreimina]

sadly this year I don't have any snow for Christmas :(

[aravindnarayanan]

Understood very little but boy the narrator's voice is so good.
Go Addison Anderson!

[jolenetan]

You can find to same snowflake if it is the humidity temperature and pressure and wind speed