• Question: Why are all snowflakes hexagonal?

    Asked by steve823 to Pete, Rebecca, SallyB, Sally, Sian on 20 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Rebecca Randell

      Rebecca Randell answered on 20 Jun 2010:

      I’ve been reading and apparantly snowflakes are only hexagonal when they fall from very high clouds, the molecular make up (what they are made up of) of snowflakes give them their hexagonal appearance

    • Photo: Sally Fenton

      Sally Fenton answered on 20 Jun 2010:

      Several factors affect snowflake formation. Temperature, air currents, and humidity all influence shape and size. Generally, six-sided hexagonal crystals are shaped in high clouds.

      Temperatures affect how detailed the shaped are. Colder temperatures produce snowflakes with sharper tips whereas snowflakes that grow under warmer conditions grow more slowly and have smoother shapes and less detailed

    • Photo: Sian Lawson

      Sian Lawson answered on 20 Jun 2010:

      Because ice crystals are hexagonal, so the branches of snowflakes grow out from each corner of a single ice crystal. The ice crystals are hexagonal because of the way that the hydrogen and oxygen atoms fit together.

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