Thursday, February 12, 2009
Snowflakes -- bouncing in a chilly wind, settling on the tip of your tongue or flurrying outside an icy window -- are one of the simple pleasures in life.
Yesterday was the first time in my life that I really, really felt snow. The feeling of snow falling on my head, my hands, my face, my cheeks... Yeah, so I still haven't built a nice snowman, but well, I enjoyed that feeling of walking on the streets alone, taking photographs of the sights, and witnessing snow falling down from the skies above.. At a point, it got so strong that the snowflakes felt like ice bits, and coupled with the strong winds howling, my face felt like it was being stung by bees with icy tails.. Keke.. My cheeks turned red, and the wind made me glued to the spot on the pavement. Each step I made required enormous strength and for awhile, I thought I would be blown away. Haha. But neh, I'm not as light as I imagined. *chuckles*
Still, it was a wonderful first time experience for me. I love seeing the children ice-skate on the temporary 'rink', it was a sight of simplicity, of joy and of innocence.. =) Well, so I decided to learn more about snow. The only thing I remembered from childhood was that snowflakes are unique, like fingerprints.
How Snowflakes are Formed
Contrary to popular belief, snowflakes are not formed when raindrops freeze (this is called sleet). Snowflakes are formed inside of clouds, when water droplets freeze and become ice particles. Water vapor in the cloud gathers on the ice particle, causing it to spread into a simple hexagonal prism and then to sprout branches to form a more complex shape.
From here, though, snowflakes take on shapes of their own. The environment inside of a cloud (the temperature and humidity) is constantly changing, so much so that it changes the shape of the snowflakes, sometimes from one second to the next.
Are snow flakes truly unique?
It's the ever-changing environment inside of clouds that makes snowflakes unique. So is it true that no two snowflakes are alike?
"It is indeed extremely unlikely that two complex snowflakes will look exactly alike. It's so extremely unlikely, in fact, that even if you looked at every one ever made you would not find any exact duplicates," says physicist Kenneth Libbrecht.
Cool, so I shall still stick to my old belief that every snowflake is the one and only. Hehe. =) Knowing that makes snow so much more special, don't you think so? =)
The mystery and simple beauty of snowflakes bring out the kid in us...
~Summer~ 11:17 PM