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Fredski
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What is This?

08/09/2015 8:36 PM
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Anonymous Hero
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#1

Re: what is this?

08/09/2015 8:47 PM

Ice.
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phoenix911
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#2

Re: what is this?

08/09/2015 8:49 PM

Snowflake

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redfred
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#3

Re: what is this?

08/09/2015 9:21 PM

A snowflake viewed with polarized light.

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Rixter
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#6
In reply to #3

Re: what is this?

08/09/2015 9:51 PM

I don't think it's widely known that ice is birefringent. Light from the blue sky is polarized by Rayleigh scattering, and you can see the colors in a frozen pond viewed on a sunny winter's day with polarized sunglasses.
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IdeaSmith
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#4

Re: what is this?

08/09/2015 9:31 PM

Beautiful!

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lyn
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#5

Re: what is this?

08/09/2015 9:41 PM

One of an infinite number of snowflake patterns.
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SolarEagle
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#7

Re: What is This?

08/09/2015 10:14 PM
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Fredski
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#9
In reply to #7

Re: What is This?

08/10/2015 7:27 AM

I was hoping for a response like Ninja death throwing star", but yes its a simple snowflake
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Randall
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#11
In reply to #7

Re: What is This?

08/10/2015 10:49 AM

This begs the question: how does each of the six points manage to exactly mimic each of the others? Given that the six points on the original and the six points on this one are completely different.

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JNB
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#12
In reply to #11

Re: What is This?

08/10/2015 11:12 AM

Maybe entropy does not apply to snowflakes??
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Anonymous Hero
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#13
In reply to #11

Re: What is This?

08/10/2015 11:17 AM

It has to do with the symmetry of water molecules as they freeze. The pack into the most efficient shape, which is hexagonal and this leads to the symmetry you see in the picture.

The crystallization phase attempts to reach minimal energy in the bonding, which actually maximizes the strength of those bonds.

As the process begins it actually lays the pattern for subsequent branches so that the shape always retains the most efficient form. It drives symmetry in the shape because that is the lowest energy state of the object.
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JavaHead
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#15
In reply to #13

Re: What is This?

08/10/2015 3:10 PM

This reminds me of a problem I was asked to provide input on but was not able to come up with a solution. Kind of slipped my mind till now...

It was back in the late 80's (post release of the movie 'Cocktail') when a friend of mine... a Bartender... wanted to make 'perfect' ice cubes... no air bubbles, no cracks or other imperfections, geometrical symmetrical (perfect spheres, squares, other shapes)

We tried different types of water purification, different types of ice trays and forms, and different temperatures. Well as sophisticated as we could get considering I was in the Army and we both had limited budgets...

Closest we ever got was an inverted pyramid shape in a polished stainless steel tray that had a cover of similar gage using distilled water that sat at just below freezing long enough for everything to stabilize before we lowered to below freezing.

Although it provided our best result, it was no where near what we were hoping for.

Fun none-the-less.

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Randall
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#16
In reply to #13

Re: What is This?

08/10/2015 4:11 PM

Thanks: GA.

But I think that there are still a few unanswered questions.

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Anonymous Hero
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#17
In reply to #16

Re: What is This?

08/10/2015 4:30 PM

Perhaps because they haven't been asked? :-)
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Randall
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#18
In reply to #17

Re: What is This?

08/11/2015 5:21 AM

This looks like a good start:-

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/publist/rpp5_4_R03.pdf

But, I think this is an area where if we only knew which questions to ask we could make much faster progress.

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Tornado
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#8

Re: What is This?

08/09/2015 10:27 PM

A virtuoso Etch-a-Sketch drawing in a lighting studio.

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SHOCKHISCAN
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#10

Re: What is This?

08/10/2015 9:24 AM

Norwegian Christmas tree decoration?

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Kulas
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#14

Re: What is This?

08/10/2015 12:53 PM

A fractal representation of nature - water molecule

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JIMRAT
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#19

Re: What is This?

08/11/2015 10:51 PM

A 3D representation of a Julia set.

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Anonymous Hero (3); Fredski (1); IdeaSmith (1); JavaHead (1); JIMRAT (1); JNB (1); Kulas (1); lyn (1); phoenix911 (1); Randall (3); redfred (1); Rixter (1); SHOCKHISCAN (1); SolarEagle (1); Tornado (1)

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