Strange Triangular Snowflakes Explained

Did you know snowflakes came in shapes other than hexagon?I didn't.

Flurries of questions about mysterious triangle-shaped snowflakes may soon subside, thanks to new research on snowflake formation. Most snowflakes are hexagons because of the arrangement of hydrogen bonds in the water molecule. But the new study, appearing online at arxiv.org (arxiv.org...) and in an upcoming issue of The Microscope, suggests that after hexagonal flakes, oddball triangular flakes are the most prevalent

Tiny impurities, such as dust particles, can cause one edge of the falling snowflake to tilt up as it falls, Libbrecht says. The snowflake sides that are pointed down grow faster as the wind blows by, leading to a stable triangular pattern. Once a triangle shape gets started, the snowflake remains triangular despite any later bumps as it falls, the researchers propose.
www.wired.com...

[edit on 12-12-2009 by genius/idoit]

so what they're saying is there's alot more impurities in the air?

hooray!

reply to post by CSquared288


Yeah,not really good news,unless you prefer triangular snowflakes.