Every Snowflake is Not Unique

This article discusses various aspects of snowflake architectures. It is certain that every snowflake conforms to only one architecture: a flat star with six fishbones connected at the center. The latent heat of solidification, which is released by the water vapor that becomes solid at the bead surface. There comes a critical time when the spherical bead is no longer an efficient architecture for dissipating heat. The principle calls for design change, toward faster heat release and solidification. The growth of ice morphs abruptly into a ball continued in one plane by needles. Because of the configuration of the water molecule, the needles grow in six directions. The flat star transfers heat to the surroundings more easily than a spherical bead with the same diameter. In order to give credit to the view that every snowflake is unique, the actual configuration depends on many secondary effects, which are of random origin.