Snow Days….
Upon preparing for yet another day out of school due to snowy conditions here in good ol’ Kentucky, I thought I would share a bit of knowledge with my students about snowflakes and how cool they really are (no pun intended!). HA!
Snowflakes can be categorized into six main types, plate, column, stars, dendrite, lacy, needle, and capped column although there will never be two that are identical due to the molecular composition and atmospheric conditions when the snowflake formed. The formation of snowflakes is affected by a variety of factors that includes air currents, humidity and temperature. Particles of dirt trapped in the water vapor affects the weight and durability of the ice crystals and because of these fa…ctors, no two snowflakes will ever be exactly alike. Snowflakes may look the same but will not have the same number of water molecules or the exact amount of oxygen and hydrogen. Wilson Bentley even captured over 5,000 snowflakes in his studies of these marvels of nature and reported his findings in numerous books and scientific articles.
