I don't understand how a story like this can make front-page slashdot, yet the story about the man burning his penis with his laptop can't. A distinct failure in public safety awareness, if I ever saw one.
It's all about the pictures
by
majordomo
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I'm sitting right now one story down from the office of Ken Libbrecht, the guy who wrote the book (and the website). Ken told me that he was writing a book on the physics of snowflakes, and I asked him how he expected to get anyone to buy it. "Pictures," he replied, "lots of pretty pictures!"
Looks like he was right!
Re:It's all about the pictures
by
kfg
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
And how is it that he got interested in the physics of snowflakes in the first place?
Bet'cha he saw some pretty pictures somewhere.
The advisor I was assigned to do my senior physics research project under had just written the book on the physics of boomerangs. Why? Because he thought boomerangs were fun, cool, and when he went to look up how they worked found out no one really knew.
My research project was on the dynamics of two wheeled vehicles. Why? Because I adored bicycles, and there were some issues with understanding just how they really worked.
Some people might be surprised at how much real science begins with the simple joy of tossing a boomerang about, or coasting down a curvey road, or some young mind thinking:
"Ooooooooooo, pretty. Me want touch."
KFG
melted fast.....
by
mao+che+minh
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· Score: 4, Funny
I guess snowflakes, and their servers, melt fast under the OVERWHELMING POWER of a slashdotting.
I look forward to seeing those beatiful images tommorow.
Hey, you're welcome to come by and take a truckload of "senseless beauty" off my driveway...please!
-- Just another day in Paradise
I Get To Experience The Best Of Both Worlds!
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
My observatory is based at 2,000 meters in one of the ten cleanest and driest locations around (the atmospheric aerosol concentrations are the lowest anywhere yet measured outside of Antarctica). As a result, not only do we get beautiful seeing and astronomical-imaging conditions, but the most amazingly beautiful and complex snowflakes I've ever seen. Life is good.:)
HaloSim3 Software is a sundog simulator which models how light passes through ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere. Beautiful and fascinating.
I'm not quite sure why this and ice crystals are so fascinating, but I have the book mentioned in the article, which consists of hundreds of black pages with 1" square images of snowflake magnifications. In the first instance it sounds insane, but it never fails to hold peoples attention.
ASCII version of pictures
by
mraymer
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· Score: 5, Funny
*
and my personal favorite
* *
* *
The above one makes a great desktop for the graphically challenged.
--
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
Why they're symmetrical
by
RobotWisdom
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Because each arm experiences the same conditions, the arms tend to look alike, producing large-scale, intricate, six-fold symmetric snow crystals.
This explanation is obviously handwaving-- the symmetry is perfect (or close to it) over scales of millions of molecules.
I've been arguing since 1980 or so that an ice crystal in freefall is not at absolute zero (obviously) so it must have internal vibrations. This is basically 'noise', but as it echoes thru the ice, it stops looking random and becomes symmetrical, like Chladni patterns on a vibrating plate or drumhead. (Or like the radiating circles from a drip of water into a circular pool, reconverging at an opposite point.) Because these symmetries are present from the first stage of growth, they maintain symmetrical growth.
I don't think the 104.5 degree angle between the hydrogens in water molecules is close enough to 120 to deliver perfect hexagonality-- it's probably due to the geometry of echoes in any disk, because hexagons can be inscribed in circles. (The spinning of the seed probably contributes to the flatness-- growing favors the outside edge of the bulge, otherwise it might be more spherical.)
Slashdot Mirror
Please, we've had more than enough snow already.. wh y don't you study sunshine or something?
I don't understand how a story like this can make front-page slashdot, yet the story about the man burning his penis with his laptop can't. A distinct failure in public safety awareness, if I ever saw one.
In a blizzard of enlightment, Slashdot editors got snowed into posting this by some flake!
Just another day in Paradise
I've been doing that since grade school. Here are my instructions:
--sex
Very popular slashdot journal for adul
I'm sitting right now one story down from the office of Ken Libbrecht, the guy who wrote the book (and the website). Ken told me that he was writing a book on the physics of snowflakes, and I asked him how he expected to get anyone to buy it. "Pictures," he replied, "lots of pretty pictures!"
Looks like he was right!
I look forward to seeing those beatiful images tommorow.
Here's my favorite snowflake picture:
Inspiring picture with Snowflakes
I love that site... hilarious (and no, I don't work for them or get money from them in ANY way)
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
one man's snow flake is another mans' glass ninja throwing star.
-makoffee
there truly is beauty in symmetry.
I agree with this. Breasts usually come in pairs.
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
"You know, fingerprints are just like snowflakes. They're both very pretty." -- Chief Wiggum
--
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." - Homer Simpson [1F10]
Mirror, in case it gets slashdotted:
\/
---
/\
HTH!
I've had this sig for three days.
Hey, you're welcome to come by and take a truckload of "senseless beauty" off my driveway...please!
Just another day in Paradise
My observatory is based at 2,000 meters in one of the ten cleanest and driest locations around (the atmospheric aerosol concentrations are the lowest anywhere yet measured outside of Antarctica). As a result, not only do we get beautiful seeing and astronomical-imaging conditions, but the most amazingly beautiful and complex snowflakes I've ever seen. Life is good. :)
In a society of snowmen, would these pictures be considered child pornography?
Support your local troll!
Some of the best eary snow flake photograph are
from Bentley (1930s). There's even a web site
for the Bently snowflake museum.
http://snowflakebentley.com/
Take a break from the trolling, posting and
hacking, and enjoy the photographs. They're
quite beautiful.
er.... did anyone notice that this snowflake has a serial number in the middle (hub) of it?
HaloSim3 Software is a sundog simulator which models how light passes through ice crystals that are suspended in the atmosphere. Beautiful and fascinating.
I'm not quite sure why this and ice crystals are so fascinating, but I have the book mentioned in the article, which consists of hundreds of black pages with 1" square images of snowflake magnifications. In the first instance it sounds insane, but it never fails to hold peoples attention.
ATH0 Bitcoin: 1DnwFLXczVZV8kLJbMYoheUrpqHesjxrSi
*
and my personal favorite
* *
* *
The above one makes a great desktop for the graphically challenged.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
This explanation is obviously handwaving-- the symmetry is perfect (or close to it) over scales of millions of molecules.
I've been arguing since 1980 or so that an ice crystal in freefall is not at absolute zero (obviously) so it must have internal vibrations. This is basically 'noise', but as it echoes thru the ice, it stops looking random and becomes symmetrical, like Chladni patterns on a vibrating plate or drumhead. (Or like the radiating circles from a drip of water into a circular pool, reconverging at an opposite point.) Because these symmetries are present from the first stage of growth, they maintain symmetrical growth.
I don't think the 104.5 degree angle between the hydrogens in water molecules is close enough to 120 to deliver perfect hexagonality-- it's probably due to the geometry of echoes in any disk, because hexagons can be inscribed in circles. (The spinning of the seed probably contributes to the flatness-- growing favors the outside edge of the bulge, otherwise it might be more spherical.)
1
nerds contemplate flakes
inspiring awe, wonder
as a good heatsink
2
each flake is unique
not unlike slashdot stories
oh wait a minute
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it