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Treble wrote: Symmetry is caused, in part, by the fact that the "hole" on the opposite side of the most-recently attached molecule causes imbalance.

Are you sure of that?
Actually I figured it's just because the flakes are not as random as it seems. Namely that the process is controlled by a couple of variables: temperature, humidity, and perhaps static electricity.
These variables vary throughout the cloud, but they hardly differ on distances of centimeters.
A snowflake while it's beeing formed travels its own trajectory through the cloud, giving each snowflake a different functions of temperature and humidity over time. That makes evey flake unique.
But since the variables don't vary on short scale, all the symmetric arms of the flake get exactly the same dependancies, and they develop in the same way.



1: Is there any known phenomena of stellar "drag" that might cause the earth's rotational speed to slow down over time? Say a period of 65 million years?
If you mean rotational movement as in "night-day" then it is. It's actually caused by our oceans of liquid water: you know moon causes water to move, the sun does exactly the same thing, though weaker.
And now a simple deduction:
moving the water takes energy, that then gets dissipated by friction
the energy is taken from earths rotational movement,
and hence earth's angular momentum decreases over time.

If you mean like "january-febuary" kind of rotational movement, then it's complicated. There is minimal friction with the space dust. But the main factor is gravitational interaction with other planets.
For example you can have earth come close to jupiter every 40 years. Depending on the orbital periods and phases jupiter will be either slowing down the earth or accelerating it!

Thanx to whoeverm for deleting my double post. Keen forums went semi-offline to me just as I posted...seemed to crash. Don't know if it actually did, but I was unable to get to forums.keenspace for half a day after that big post.
Anyway, yarps, you made me look it up:
First, where to find some snowflake pictures: http://snowflakebentley.com/
Now, here comes the science:
Scientific American did an entire article on snowflakes a few years back...I was trying to remember it, didn't get it quite right. It's kind of a balance between the forces attracting and the forces repelling water molecules to/from the crystal snowflake.
http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question ... D7&catID=3
And:
http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_question ... D7&catID=3

Treble wrote:Thanx to whoeverm for deleting my double post

^^ That would be me.

It's kinda weird, as I subscribe polish edition of Scientific American for the past few years, and I didn't see these reports... but it looks looks like I got the snowflakes right:

SciAm wrote: A crystal might begin to grow in one manner and then minutes or even seconds later something changes (temperature or humidity), so it starts to grow in another manner. The hexagonal symmetry is maintained, but the ice crystal may branch off in new directions. The changes in environmental conditions take place over a large area compared with the size of a single snowflake, so all regions of the flake are similarly affected

Of course the molecular forces are what gives the snowflake their basic symetry properties.

Good grief.

Thanks everyone. I've got enough questions to last me until Alzheimers kicks in. Don't let it be said the forum goons won't help out one of their own.

I'll root through this thread today and pull them all out, and then do a post letting you know which I'll take on next (figuring most of you don't read my comic, but might be idly curious which I chose).

... I think I'll need a bigger pad of paper. *roots in drawer*

*giggle* Heh heh. We sure are an enthusiastic bunch aren't we?

Speaking of which, Ryan, I've been meaning to offer to do this for ages...

If you'd like a simple doodle of something that's hard to draw digitally (slugs or whatever), I could knock out a quick one on my tablet for you if you like. (and if I'm not too busy, but then again it'd take very little time on a tablet, so no worries)

I don't want to replace ABOL or anything, but just to let you know I don't mind doing a bit of quick sketching if you need it.

Yeah, Yuri is a pretty ugly slug, even by a slug's standards.

I appreciate the offer; I'm kind of torn about accepting it because your artwork is a lotbetter than mine (and it would show), and frankly, I won't learn to draw if I don't draw stuff. ........ you should have seen the ORIGINAL Yuri.

I may ask you for some pointers on how to draw something I'm having trouble getting a perspective on though.

Oh and about the questions! I have the list now, and the one I think I'll do next is Warren's... it just sounds like a lot of fun.

"Why are some metals explosively reactive with water?"

That'll start on the 19th, and I'll put up a link to Spare Change and give Warren credit when it starts.

As for the other questions, as I use 'em I'll give credit where due. Thanks for the <checks> Two full pages of questions!