Why do snowflakes have six sides? Why does ice float on water? Is every snowflake unique? This month’s edition of Periodic Graphics in Chemical & Engineering News looks at the answers to these questions and more! Click here to view the full graphic.
In the Northern Hemisphere at least, the idealised vision of Christmas involves snow. Whilst no one snowflake is exactly the same as another, at least on a molecular level, scientists have none-the-less devised a system of classification for the many types of crystals that snow can form. This graphic shows the shapes and names of some of the groups of this classification.