How can there be so many shapes?
As we know, snowflake is ice, and ice is the crystal of water, and the shape of the crystal is determined by its molecular formula. Snowflakes have many shapes and are very beautiful. Most snowflakes are hexagonal, because snowflakes belong to hexagonal system. There are two small ice crystals with key shapes in the "test tube embryo" of the snowflake in the clouds. One is hexagonal, slender and called columnar crystals, but sometimes its two sides are pointed and look like needles, called acicular crystals. The other is a hexagonal flake, just like a flake cut from a six-sided pen, called a flake crystal.
Similarly, the structure of water molecules determines the basic shape of snowflakes: hexagon.
We know that when the temperature drops, the particles in chemicals gradually pull you to heat each other, just like feeling cold, and so do water molecules. A water molecule consists of an oxygen molecule and two hydrogen atoms, and the angle of the stretched hydrogen atom "arm" is104 28'. This angle determines the most reliable fixed structure for water molecules to hold hands.
Subsequently, the water molecules will continue to widen and expand according to this hexagon, as follows:
From a more macro economic point of view, it is as follows: gradually starting from the hexagon, constantly fractal, repeated, and finally the most beautiful flower in the world: snowflake.
So all the snowflakes you see are hexagonal.
Speaking of which, the question is coming. Like I said, shouldn't all snowflakes look the same?
Snowflakes often have so many shapes because of temperature and environmental humidity. If there is a lot of water vapor around the ice crystal, the hexagon will increase rapidly and form a star shape; If there is little water vapor, the six corners will not increase as fast as the two bottoms, forming a column; If the water vapor is moderate, it will produce huge snowflakes.