{"id":55195,"date":"2020-01-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prohoster.info\/blog\/blog_prohoster\/velikaya-teoriya-snezhinok"},"modified":"2020-02-18T14:03:17","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T11:03:17","slug":"velikaya-teoriya-snezhinok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prohoster.info\/en\/blog\/news\/velikaya-teoriya-snezhinok","title":{"rendered":"The Great Snowflake Theory.","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
\nSnow in central Russia has been scarce this winter. While some did fall in places, it was expected there would be more frosty and snowy weather in January. The dull grayness and unpleasant slush hinder the enjoyment of typical winter activities. Therefore, Cloud4Y suggests adding a little snow to our lives by talking about\u2026 snowflakes.<\/i><\/a><\/noindex><\/p>\n

It is believed that there are only two types of snowflakes. One of the scientists, sometimes referred to as the 'father' of snowflake physics, has proposed a new theory explaining the reason for this. Kenneth Libbrecht<\/a><\/noindex> is an extraordinary person who is willing to leave the sun-kissed warmth of Southern California in the middle of winter to travel to Fairbanks, Alaska, put on a warm jacket, and sit in a frozen field with a camera and a piece of foam in hand.<\/p>\n

Why? He seeks the most sparkling, textured, and beautiful snowflakes that nature can create. According to him, the most interesting specimens tend to form in the coldest places\u2014infamous Fairbanks and the snowy northern parts of New York. The best snow Kenneth has ever observed fell in Cochrane, a town in northeastern Ontario, where a light breeze swirled the snowflakes falling from the sky.<\/p>\n

Captivated by the element, Libbrecht studies his foam board with the persistence of an archaeologist. If something interesting is there, his gaze will surely latch onto it. If not, the snow is brushed off the board, and everything starts over. And this can go on for hours.<\/p>\n

Libbrecht is a physicist. By a funny twist of fate, his laboratory at the California Institute of Technology studies the internal structure of the Sun and has even developed modern instruments for detecting gravitational waves. But for the last 20 years, Libbrecht's true passion has been snow\u2014not just its appearance but also what causes it to look that way. 'The question of what objects fall from the sky, how it happens, and why they look the way they do is something that constantly troubles me,' Kenneth admits.<\/p>\n

\"The
\n
\nFor a long time, physicists were content with knowing that among the multitude of tiny snowflakes, two predominant types could be distinguished. One of them is a flat star with six or twelve rays, each adorned with stunningly beautiful lacework. The other resembles a kind of miniature column, sometimes sandwiched between flat 'caps', and other times it looks like an ordinary bolt. These shapes can be seen at different temperatures and humidity levels, but the reason for forming one shape or another remained a mystery. Years of observations by Libbrecht have helped to better understand the process of snowflake crystallization.<\/p>\n

Libbrecht's findings in this area have helped create a new model that explains why snowflakes and other snow crystals form the shapes we are accustomed to. According to his theory, published <\/a><\/noindex>online in October 2019, it describes the movement of water molecules near the freezing (crystallization) point and how specific movements of these molecules can generate a collection of crystals that form under various conditions. In his monograph <\/a><\/noindex>spanning 540 pages, Libbrecht describes all known information about snow crystals.<\/p>\n

Six-pointed Stars<\/h2>\n

\nYou certainly know that it's impossible to see two identical snowflakes (except perhaps at the very beginning of their formation). This fact is related to how crystals form in the sky. Snow is a collection of ice crystals that develop in the atmosphere and retain their shape as they fall together to the Earth. They are formed when the atmosphere is cold enough to prevent merging or melting into wet snow or rain.<\/p>\n

Although multiple temperatures and humidity levels can be captured within a single cloud, for an individual snowflake, these variables will remain constant. That's why a snowflake often grows symmetrically. On the other hand, each snowflake is influenced by wind, sunlight, and other factors. Essentially, each crystal is subject to the chaos of the cloud, leading it to take on various forms.<\/p>\n

According to Liebbrecht's research, the earliest reflections on these delicate forms were recorded in 135 BC in China. \"The flowers of plants and trees are generally five-pointed, but snowflakes are always six-pointed,\" wrote the scholar Han Yin. The first scientist who tried to understand why this happens was probably Johannes Kepler, a German scientist and polymath.<\/p>\n

In 1611, Kepler presented a New Year's gift to his patron, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II: a small treatise <\/a><\/noindex>entitled \"On Hexagonal Snowflakes.\" <\/p>\n

\"I cross the bridge, tormented by shame \u2013 I have left you without a New Year's gift! And here comes a convenient opportunity! Water vapor, condensing from the cold into snow, falls as snowflakes onto my clothing, all, like one, six-pointed, with fluffy rays. I swear by Hercules, here is something that is less than any droplet, has a shape, may serve as a long-awaited New Year's gift for a lover of Nothingness and is worthy of a mathematician who possesses Nothing and receives Nothing, as it falls from the sky and holds within it the likeness of a hexagonal star!\".<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"There must be a reason why snow takes the shape of a hexagonal star. It cannot be sheer coincidence,\" Johannes Kepler was convinced. Perhaps he recalled a letter from his contemporary Thomas Harriot, an English scientist and astronomer, who had also worked as a navigator for the explorer Sir Walter Raleigh. Around 1584, Harriot sought the most efficient way to stack cannonballs on the decks of Raleigh's ships. Harriot found that hexagonal patterns seemed the best way to arrange spheres, and he discussed this matter in correspondence with Kepler. Kepler wondered if something similar occurs in snowflakes and by what element these six rays arise and hold. <\/p>\n

The shapes of snowflakes<\/b>\"The
\n
\n\"The
\n
\n\"The
\n
\nOne could say that this was the initial understanding of the principles of atomic physics, which would only be discussed 300 years later. Indeed, water molecules with their two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen tend to bond together, forming hexagonal arrays. Kepler and his contemporaries had no idea how significant this was.<\/p>\n

As physicists say, due to hydrogen bonding and molecular interactions, we can observe an open crystalline structure. Besides the ability to grow snowflakes, the hexagonal structure allows ice to be less dense than water, which has a huge impact on geochemistry, geophysics, and climate. In other words, if ice didn't float, life on Earth would be impossible.<\/p>\n

However, after Kepler's treatise, the observation of snowflakes became more of a hobby than serious science. In the 1880s, an American photographer named Wilson Bentley, who lived in the cold, perpetually snowy little town of Jericho (Vermont, USA), began taking pictures of snowflakes using photographic plates. He managed to create over 5,000 photographs before he died of pneumonia.<\/p>\n

\"The
\n
\nLater, in the 1930s, Japanese researcher Ukichiro Nakaya began a systematic study of different types of snow crystals. By mid-century, Nakaya was growing snowflakes in a laboratory, using individual rabbit hairs placed in a cooled room. He adjusted the humidity and temperature settings to grow the main types of crystals, compiling his original catalog of possible forms. Nakaya found that star-shaped snowflakes tend to form at -2 \u00b0C and -15 \u00b0C. Columns form at -5 \u00b0C and around -30 \u00b0C. <\/p>\n

It is important to note that at around -2 \u00b0C, thin plate-like snowflake forms appear, at -5 \u00b0C they create thin columns and needles, and when the temperature drops to -15 \u00b0C, they become truly thin plates, while at temperatures below -30 \u00b0C they revert to thicker columns.<\/p>\n

\"The
\n
\nIn low humidity conditions, star snowflakes form several branches and resemble hexagonal plates, but in high humidity, they become more intricate and lacy.<\/p>\n

According to Libbrecht, the reasons for the various forms of snowflakes became clearer thanks to Nakaya's work. It was established that snow crystals turn into flat stars and plates (rather than three-dimensional structures) when their edges grow rapidly outward, while the facets grow slowly upward. Thin columns grow differently, with rapidly growing facets and more slowly growing edges.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the main processes affecting whether a snowflake becomes a star or a column remain unclear. Perhaps the secret lies in the temperature conditions. Libbrecht tried to find an answer to this question.<\/p>\n

The Snowflake Recipe<\/h2>\n

\nTogether with his small team of researchers, Libbrecht attempted to devise a snowflake recipe. That is, a set of equations and parameters that could be fed into a computer to produce a magnificent variety of snowflakes from AI.<\/p>\n

Kenneth Libbrecht began his research twenty years ago after learning about an exotic form of snowflake called the closed column. It resembles a spool of thread or two wheels and an axle. Born in the northern part of the country, he was shocked to find that he had never seen such a snowflake.<\/p>\n

Amazed by the endless shapes of snow crystals, he took on the study of<\/a><\/noindex> their nature, creating a laboratory for growing snowflakes. The results of years of observation helped create a model that the author himself considers groundbreaking. He proposed the idea of molecular diffusion based on surface energy. This idea describes how the growth of a snow crystal depends on initial conditions and the behavior of the molecules that form it.<\/p>\n

\"The
\n
\nImagine that water molecules are loosely arranged, as water vapor is just beginning to freeze. If one could be inside a tiny observatory watching this process, one would see how the frozen water molecules begin to form a rigid lattice where each oxygen atom is surrounded by four hydrogen atoms. These crystals grow by incorporating water molecules from the surrounding air into their structure. They can grow in two main directions: upward or outward.<\/p>\n

A thin flat crystal (plate-like or star-shaped) is formed when the edges grow faster than the two faces of the crystal. The growing crystal will spread outward. However, when its faces grow faster than its edges, the crystal becomes taller, forming a needle, hollow column, or rod.<\/p>\n

Rare forms of snowflakes<\/b>\"The
\n
\n\"The
\n
\n\"The
\n
\nOne more thing. Note the third photograph taken by Libbrecht in northern Ontario. This is a crystal with 'closed columns' \u2014 two plates attached to the ends of a thick columnar crystal. In this case, each plate is divided into a pair of much thinner plates. If you look closely at the edges, you'll see how the plate splits into two. The edges of these two thin plates are almost as sharp as a razor blade. The total length of the ice column is about 1.5 mm.<\/p>\n

According to Libbrecht's model, water vapor first settles at the corners of the crystal and then diffuses over the surface either to the edge of the crystal or to its faces, causing the crystal to grow outward or upward. Which of these processes 'wins' mainly depends on the temperature.<\/p>\n

It's worth noting that this model is 'semi-empirical'. In other words, it is partly constructed to match the observations rather than explain the principles behind snowflake growth. The instabilities and interactions among countless molecules are too complex to fully unveil. Nonetheless, there is hope that Libbrecht's ideas will serve as a foundation for a comprehensive model of ice growth dynamics that can be detailed through more precise measurements and experiments.<\/p>\n

Do not think that these observations are of interest to a narrow circle of scientists. Such questions arise in condensed matter physics and other fields. Molecules of medicines, semiconductor chips for computers, solar cells, and many other industries rely on high-quality crystals, and entire groups are engaged in the issue of their growth. So, the beloved snowflakes of Libbrecht may well serve the advancement of science.<\/p>\n

What else is useful to read in the blog Cloud4Y<\/a><\/noindex><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2192 Salty solar energy<\/a><\/noindex>
\n\u2192 Penetration testers on the front lines of cybersecurity<\/a><\/noindex>
\n\u2192 Startups that can amaze<\/a><\/noindex>
\n\u2192 Internet on balloons.<\/a><\/noindex>
\n\u2192 Are cushions needed in the data center?<\/a><\/noindex><\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Telegram<\/a><\/noindex>-channel, so you won't miss our next article! We post no more than twice a week and only when it's important. By the way, if you haven't heard yet, startups can receive $10,000 from Cloud4Y. The terms and application for interested parties are on our website: bit.ly\/2sj6dPK<\/a><\/noindex>
\n
Source: habr.com<\/a><\/p>","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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