3 ms·

How A Vermont Farmer Proved No Snowflakes Are Alike

11 points by andrewl 4y ago

shagie 4y ago
In lab situations, it is possible to grow "identical twins". Some various coverage on Professor Libbrecht and his snow flakes... KEQD: https://www.kqed.org/science/1536955/identical-snowflakes-scientist-ruins-winter-for-everyone-deep-look https://www.kqed.org/science/1536955/identical-snowflakes-sc... Quartz: https://youtu.be/N2oJaW7Xiek https://youtu.be/N2oJaW7Xiek Veritasium: https://youtu.be/ao2Jfm35XeE https://youtu.be/ao2Jfm35XeE And if you want to dig deep: http://snowcrystals.com http://snowcrystals.com
- version_five 4y ago
  The article's title would be better if it was something like "the Vermont farmer who was the first to photograph snowflakes". The article isn't about the chemistry / physics, it's about how he collected lots of pictures. It's a cool achievement, just not reflected in the title
gardenfelder 4y ago
What bothers me is this: Popper once argued that to prove something, you need to falsify the claim. I am reminded of the story about "no such thing as a black swan", which held right up until someone brought a black swan into town from afar.
- karmakaze 4y ago
  Instead of extrapolating "there are no black swans in town" to "the world", it would be better to calculate the probability of no black swans being in town (given that there are N swans in town), based on hypothetical populations of swans and varying uniformity of distribution. A zero-knowledge proof[0] uses similar reasoning. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof
- eesmith 4y ago
  When this came up yesterday, at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34130864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34130864 , I pointed to an article by Nancy C. Knight, "No Two Alike?" in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1988. https://journals.ametsoc.org/downloadpdf/journals/bams/69/5/1520-0477-69_5_496.pdf https://journals.ametsoc.org/downloadpdf/journals/bams/69/5/... . > Figure 1, a photograph of actual snow crystals, not replicas, illustrates a striking example of two snow crystals which, if not identical, are certainly very much alike. ... The two very similar snowflakes are in the bottom center of figure 1, side-by-side.

11 points by andrewl 4y ago

In lab situations, it is possible to grow "identical twins". Some various coverage on Professor Libbrecht and his snow flakes... KEQD: https://www.kqed.org/science/1536955/identical-snowflakes-scientist-ruins-winter-for-everyone-deep-look https://www.kqed.org/science/1536955/identical-snowflakes-sc... Quartz: https://youtu.be/N2oJaW7Xiek https://youtu.be/N2oJaW7Xiek Veritasium: https://youtu.be/ao2Jfm35XeE https://youtu.be/ao2Jfm35XeE And if you want to dig deep: http://snowcrystals.com http://snowcrystals.com

version_five 4y ago
The article's title would be better if it was something like "the Vermont farmer who was the first to photograph snowflakes". The article isn't about the chemistry / physics, it's about how he collected lots of pictures. It's a cool achievement, just not reflected in the title

gardenfelder 4y ago

What bothers me is this: Popper once argued that to prove something, you need to falsify the claim. I am reminded of the story about "no such thing as a black swan", which held right up until someone brought a black swan into town from afar.

karmakaze 4y ago
Instead of extrapolating "there are no black swans in town" to "the world", it would be better to calculate the probability of no black swans being in town (given that there are N swans in town), based on hypothetical populations of swans and varying uniformity of distribution. A zero-knowledge proof[0] uses similar reasoning. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof
eesmith 4y ago
When this came up yesterday, at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34130864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34130864 , I pointed to an article by Nancy C. Knight, "No Two Alike?" in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1988. https://journals.ametsoc.org/downloadpdf/journals/bams/69/5/1520-0477-69_5_496.pdf https://journals.ametsoc.org/downloadpdf/journals/bams/69/5/... . > Figure 1, a photograph of actual snow crystals, not replicas, illustrates a striking example of two snow crystals which, if not identical, are certainly very much alike. ... The two very similar snowflakes are in the bottom center of figure 1, side-by-side.