The Science of Snowflakes

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You are a beautiful and curious snowflake.

Snowflakes are infinitely beautiful, but are they infinitely unique? Here's all the science behind Earth's favorite cold crystal.

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Joe Hanson - Host and writer
Joe Nicolosi - Director
Amanda Fox - Producer, Spotzen IncKate Eads - Associate Producer
Katie Graham - Director of Photography
Andrew Matthews - Editor and motion graphics

Produced for PBS Digital Studios
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[christinaquisumbing]

Amazing! There's so much order and precision ... how can you look at one and say it is not a design? Bentley studied them for 50 years, so if there were identical ones... he probably would have found them. His study brings forth real science and his obsession is understandable because they are absolutely beautiful!

[abhishekbhamare]

5:13 And the transition from a physicist to a poet at the end is even more beautiful

[DinoDudeDillon]

You didn't explain why snowflakes are symmetrical. Sure, water molecules freeze in hexagonal crystals, and arms are most likely to form off the points of the hexagon, but why are two arms on opposite sides of the hexagon usually the same shape?

[JessTheDragoon]

How big can a snowflake get?  There are no snowflakes where I live but I'm really really really curious to know.

[roserainmusic]

Snowflakes are so beautiful and detailed!  The more science I learn, the more I know there's a design to everything!

[violet]

"There's no design"...even when God shows you his greatness, you still don't believe. Prayers up for you

[AMSVlogs]

Only a creater of everything can make these master pieces same looking, but at the same time so unique 💖

[connecttoyourhealthcare]

"of course we know there is no design in a snowflake" Of course.
"Depending on temperature and humidity, and a lot of factors that scientists don't even understand..." Of course.

[mebei]

it's NICE to be smart :) thanks for sharing the science this way

[TheMrMxyspptlk]

to me the fact that a point in the upper left side of a snowflake branches (macroscopically) exactly like a point in the lower right side is a plain miracle. The overlap of EM fields of countless atoms determine the likelyhood of a branch and the type of the branch in a specific point and the fact that the symmetry is maintained at such macroscale is astonishing. I cannot wrap my mind around it. Termal jigling, crystal offsets, pressure/temperature/humidity differentials across the snowflake... when you account for those you should sink quickly into caos, such precise symmetry of the surface tension and the overall EM strenght and orientation cannot be maintained... and, instead, it is.

[MickPosch]

So here's my snowflake story:

Years ago, I was in a ski club and we did a trip to Vermont for a weekend. Me and another guy I'd just met had just skied the last few runs of the day, and as the sun was getting low in the sky he took me aside and told me how much he enjoyed our time together...because it took his mind off something: He had been engaged to a beautiful woman, but it fell apart. And this was the day they were to have been married!

Now just as he had begun to tell his tale, it started snowing. And snowflakes were beginning to collect on his ski jacket. But these were not the kind of snowflakes we normally see. No, they were the kind you think only exist in postcards. Perfectly formed...like they had been stamped out by a fancy hole puncher. Maybe it was something about the Vermont air...but I'd never seen anything like it. So this guy is pouring his heart out to me, and the whole time I had to bite my tongue resisting the urge to say "Holy crap, dude, look at those cool snowflakes!"

To this day, the guy hasn't realized that the coolest snowflakes ever were forming right on his jacket. I never saw him again, nor snowflakes that looked quite like that!

[jamxjam]

Even in the smallest things God amaze me ❤

[vevfd]

Loved the happy little Bob Ross impression at the end :D

[sdd]

I have no relation to science, physics, math or chemistry. I'm an Arts student. But Nature never fails to amaze people from any field.

[man_on_wheelz]

I love it when snowflakes form large enough to be able to catch a single flake on your glove and examine it with the naked eye.

[joseu]

1:34 "There is no design in a snow so I guess "it's ok to be stupid too." Next time I look at a circuit board or any complicated structure for that matter I'll just say that a tornado built it. Also, next time I see a simple "rule" like a line of computer or legal code I'll simply say it just came to be and that no engeneer and lawyer made it.

[ChinaMo]

It doesn't matter how many of these I watch, they're *always* fascinating AND entertaining (bonus!). Thank you all so much for doing such awesome work (and providing a great many teaching aides!) :-D

[CorpoClimb]

You got me at " He never got married, never moved out of his mom's house"

[xAlexCardenas]

this was so beautiful... just like humans... "Snowflakes are symmetrical, but they're not perfect. They're ordered, but they're created in disorder, every random branch re-tells their history, that singular journey they took to get here, and most of all they're fleeting and temporary. Even if sometimes they don't look so unique on the outside, if we look within, we can see that they're truly unique after all."

[Tisamenfeu]

Isnt that a bob ross reference a the end? hahaha