• Question: What causes the snowflakes?

    Asked by Angel to Huma, Jack, Lucy, Miranda, Peter on 17 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Miranda Bane

      Miranda Bane answered on 17 Nov 2016:


      Snowflakes are made when a droplet of water (usually rain high in the sky) freezes around a speck of dust. This forms an ice crystal. As the ice crystal falls through the cold air it grows and makes beautiful patterns until it is a snowflake. I’m not sure whey these patterns happen in the way they do but it’s something to do with the structure of the water molecules and how they fit together. It’s amazing!

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