Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 31, 1995 TAG: 9501310126
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Believe it. No two are alike, and we say this based not on conventional wisdom but on our own in-depth study of the snowflakes outside our window that still fell in gracious plenty early Monday afternoon, before tapering off as the day wore on toward quitting time.
Some snowflakes are big and fat and saucy, we saw, enough so to give you a shiner if they hit you in the eye. Some are skinny shivs that smite your nose. Some are soft as the down on a baby duck. Some are mavericks that do their darndest to float up, to break away from the pack coming down. Some are resilient cusses that no matter how hard you try to beat them off will cling to your parka. Some are thoroughly offended to be called white stuff.
If, however, you refuse to accept our own empirical research into the multicultural diversity of snowflakes, you can do your own. You will need a microscope, slides and a spray can of clear lacquer. (That's "lacquer," not "liquor.")
1. Put the slides and the lacquer in the freezer until they're good and chilled.
2. Look out the window. If you see snow falling - and we know of no reason to think we've seen the last of it this winter - quickly take the slides and lacquer outside.
3. Handling the slides on a piece of cardboard so they won't be warmed by your body heat, spray them with a thin coat of lacquer. Leave the slides outdoors until they have captured several snowflakes.
4. Still outdoors, but under cover from falling snow, allow the slides to dry.
5. Then, bring the slides indoors where, under the microscope, you can examine the snowflakes and observe for yourself the vast variety in their shapes, sizes and personalities.
Or, consider this mind-stretcher. The average snowflake contains one to the 18th power - that is, a one with 18 zeroes trailing after it - molecules of water.
Now, the number of ways in which one-to-the-18th-power molecules can be arranged amounts to ... well, let's just say it's more than anyone we know would care to count. The odds of any two snowflakes' being exactly alike are as infinitesimal as the potential number of molecular arrangements is astronomical.
But all this is exhausting. Better just to believe. Besides, snowfall offers other projects that are more fun, and better use of time to boot.
May we suggest making snow ice-cream? Lying in the snow and swinging your arms to make angels? Building snowpeople? Shoveling snow? (Well, that one, while useful, might not be more fun.)
Thanking our lucky stars that the burden which fell to us this time was snow, and not the miserable ice with which Southwest Virginia was so afflicted last winter?
Memo: ***CORRECTION***