Snowflakes fall in a universal pattern, study finds

After analyzing how half a million snowflakes fell during mountain storms in Utah (United States), researchers discovered surprising similarities in the trajectories.

We now know that a snowflake, according to a study, always falls in the same pattern. This is what emerges from a scientific publication, relayed this week by the British weekly New Scientist.

According to this study, the flakes, which all have very different and very delicate shapes, nevertheless all fall in the same way. That is to say, they follow a “universal” trajectory. Researchers in fluid dynamics from the University of Utah in the United States were able to demonstrate this, using equipment capable of measuring the shape, size, mass and density of the flakes. Equipment that was installed on a mountain near Salt Lake City.

Misunderstanding of researchers

The result is astonishing. The researchers observed the behavior of the flakes during several more or less violent storms, in always different weather conditions. Result: whatever these conditions, despite their lightness which makes them so slaves to the wind, they always follow the same statistical model, systematically reproducing the same path, the same accelerations, and the same fluctuations at the end of the race.

This phenomenon literally amazed scientists, who did not expect this predictability. Moreover, if they demonstrated that the falls always follow the same pattern, they are incapable of explaining why. The flakes, although predictable, have the ability to transform everything in the space of a few hours, before melting, and they have not yet revealed all their mysteries.