One of the more technically creative time lapses we’ve seen in a long while, Snowtime is a 2-minute “microscopic time-lapse” by Vyacheslav Ivanov that captures the mesmerizing bloom of budding ice crystals in all their hexagonal glory.
The ice crystal(s) in snowflakes owe their six-fold rotational symmetry to the hydrogen bonds in water molecules. As water freezes, water molecules bound to other water molecules crystallize into a hexagonal structure, where each point on the hexagon is an oxygen atom and each side of the hexagon is a hydrogen bonded to an oxygen. As freezing continues, more water molecules are added to this microscopic six-sided structure, causing it to grow in size into the six-sided macroscopic structure that we recognize as snow flakes.
Water’s tendency to expand as it nears freezing – rather than condense, like most substances – is part of what lends its frozen crystal structure its unique shape. (It’s also responsible for a number of water’s unique properties, and why it’s so essential to the existence of life.) Something to keep in mind the next time you’re experimenting with good old H2O.
https://gizmodo.com/watch-what-happens-when-you-use-a-supersoaker-on-a-42-1494586739
https://gizmodo.com/how-to-freeze-water-in-about-half-a-second-512869494
Complement with some stunning close-up photographs of snowflakes, here and here.
https://gizmodo.com/amazing-close-up-photos-of-snowflakes-taken-without-a-m-1478945547
https://gizmodo.com/take-a-look-at-some-gorgeous-snowflakes-and-find-out-t-5879047
[Vyacheslav Ivanov via Kuriositas]
