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Can two snowflakes be alike?

No two snowflakes are identical, molecule for molecule. (Molecules are particles made by the combination of two or more atoms.) A snowflake is made up of more than 180 billion water molecules that come together under a variety of conditions. Furthermore, molecules are constantly freezing to and evaporating from snowflakes, meaning that snowflakes, at the molecular level, are constantly changing.

However, it does appear that two snowflakes can be identical in size. This was proven in 1989 by Nancy Knight, a cloud physicist (a scientist specializing in the interaction between matter and energy) with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Knight collected snow samples from an airplane over Wasau, Wisconsin, and found two snowflakes that were both 250 microns long and 170 microns wide. (A micron is one-millionth of a meter.)

Sources: Engelbert, Phillis. The Complete...

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