Beautiful name for a snowflake. heavenly messengers

Topic: "Snowflakes - the wings of angels that fell from heaven ..."

Place of work: MOU secondary school No. 9, grade 3, Irkutsk region, Ust-Kut

Scientific adviser:

1. Introduction.

2. Snowflakes - the wings of angels that fell from heaven:

History of the study of snowflakes;

Conditions for the birth of snowflakes;

The geometry of the snowflake

· Types of snowflakes;

· Physics of snow.

3. Entertaining and informative about snow and snowflake.

· Do you know that…;

· snow tales;

Snegurochka - a girl from the snow;

«Lantern for admiring the snow»;

· Excursion to the museum of snowflakes.

"Summer Snow Festival"

4. Small miracle with your own hands.

· Snowflake in 3D format;

· Quilling.

· How to cut a beautiful snowflake;

5. Conclusion.

Introduction.

"Nature is so about everything

Made sure that everywhere

You find something to learn."

Leonardo Da Vinci

Snow is a great miracle of nature. The legend about the very first snow tells that the Rebellious Angels at the moment of the fall lost their snow-white wings, which covered the earth with a white shiny carpet. So snow appeared, and the first winter came.

When it snows, this spectacle leaves no one indifferent. For some, the falling snow pleases, gives high spirits, while for others, on the contrary, it evokes sadness and sadness. Thanks to snow, every year we admire fabulous winter landscapes, but we love snow not only for this. Snow reserves affect the crop, the water level in the rivers. Snow is used to build winter roads and even airfields. But we do not even think about this useful role of snow. Snow for us is first of all a FAIRY TALE. Have you noticed that various monsters, mythical and fabulous, can live anywhere, but man has not settled them in the snow? But snow inspired a great many fairy tales to man.

The most amazing thing about snowflakes is that none of them repeats the other. Astronomer Johannes Kepler in his treatise "New Year's gift. About hexagonal snowflakes ”explained the shape of the crystals by the will of God. If you live in cold lands, you know about winter firsthand, then you have at least one reason to be proud of it: unlike residents of hot countries, you can admire snowflakes in vivo. Believe me, it is very interesting to look at snowflakes, if only because two identical ones have never fallen to the ground.

PURPOSE OF THE WORK:

· To get acquainted with the conditions of the birth of snowflakes;

Consider the division of snowflakes according to shape;

· Get ​​acquainted with the geometry and physics of snowflakes;

· Learn myths, riddles, proverbs and sayings about snow;

Consider making unusual paper snowflakes.

THIS WORK CAN BE USED:

As an additional material in the lessons of the "World around" in the 3rd grade;

In the lessons of visual geometry;

· As material for messages;

· In additional and optional classes for younger students.

"Snowflakes are the wings of angels that have fallen from heaven..."

The history of the study of snowflakes.

It is difficult to say when a person first admired this miracle of nature. The forms of snowflakes are unusually diverse - there are more than five thousand of their variations.

Conditions for the birth of snowflakes.

Snowflakes develop from small ice crystals shaped like hexagons. During very severe frosts (at temperatures below 30 degrees), ice crystals fall out in the form of "diamond dust" - in this case, a layer of very fluffy snow is formed on the surface of the earth, consisting of thin ice needles. Usually, in the course of their movement inside the ice cloud, ice crystals grow due to the direct transition of water vapor into ice. How exactly this growth occurs depends on external conditions, in particular on temperature and humidity, as shown in the figure:

Under certain conditions, ice hexagons grow intensively along their axis, and then elongated snowflakes form - snowflakes-columns, snowflakes-needles. Under other conditions, hexagons grow mainly in directions perpendicular to their axis, and then snowflakes form in the form hexagonal plates or hexagonal stars. A drop of water can freeze to a falling snowflake - as a result, a snowflake irregular shape. We see, therefore, that the popular belief that snowflakes look like hexagonal stars is erroneous. Moving up and down, they fall into a layer of air with supercooled water droplets. Here, the future snowflake begins to intensively increase in size. In this case, the convex sections of the snowflake grow faster. So, a six-pointed asterisk grows from an originally hexagonal plate. Faced on its way with supercooled droplets, the snowflake is simplified in shape. If it collides with a large drop, it can turn into a small hailstone.

Snowflake geometry.

0 "style="border-collapse:collapse;border:none">

"Star"

"Column"

"Plate"

"Triangle"

"Flat"

"Needle"

"Space Crystals"

"Fern Dendrites"

"Twelve Pointed Star"

Physics of snow.

Step on fluffy snow on a frosty day. Do you hear? It is the sound of a myriad of crystals breaking. The lower the temperature, the harder and more fragile the snowflakes, and the stronger the crunch underfoot. Can you tell the temperature by hearing the sound of breaking snowflakes?
After all, each temperature has its own creaking tone.

Despite the fact that snowflakes are small, by the end of winter, the mass of snow cover in the northern hemisphere of the planet reaches 13,500 billion tons. Snow reflects up to 90% of sunlight into space.

We are used to seeing White snow. And is he white? The fact is that the complex shape of the ice floes strongly refracts light. As a result, snow reflects white sunlight.

However, there are times when a different color of snow is pronounced for the human eye. So, for example, in the arctic and mountainous regions, pink or red snow, colored by algae living between its crystals, is considered common.

There are cases when blue, green, gray or black snow fell from the sky. So, on Christmas Day 1969, black snow fell on 16,000 square miles of Swedish territory. Most likely, this happened as a result of emissions industrial waste to the air.

In 1955, phosphorescent green snow fell near Dana, California. Some residents decided to try his flakes and soon died, the hands of those who dared only take it in their hands became covered with a rash, accompanied by severe itching. This phenomenon still creates controversy about the origin of snow. In the meantime, it is believed that the toxic fallout was the result of atomic testing in the state of Nevada.

Wet snow in the mountains forms wet avalanches, which have tremendous destructive power and a cementing effect. Avalanches cause a lot of inconvenience to people, breaking down from the mountains at the most inopportune moment. Usually, avalanches form on slopes with a steepness of 25-45° (however, avalanches are known to descend from slopes with a steepness of 15-18°). On steeper slopes, snow does not accumulate in large quantities and rolls off in small doses as it accumulates. Any avalanches pose a threat, even with a volume of only a few cubic meters.

April 30" href="/text/category/30_aprelya/" rel="bookmark"> April 30, 1944 in Moscow. Caught on the palm, they covered almost the entire palm and resembled beautiful ostrich feathers. Scientists explained this phenomenon as follows: from near Franz Josef Land, a wave of cold air descended, the temperature dropped, the formation of snowflakes began in the clouds. But snowflakes could not immediately fall to the ground: they were held up in the air by warm streams rising from the heated earth. Snowflakes floated in the air layers and stuck together, forming large The earth cooled by evening, the ascending air currents weakened, and an amazing snowfall began.

Bulldozer" href="/text/category/bulmzdozer/" rel="bookmark">Bulldozer .

It is known that even in the air snowflakes are constantly changing. Depending on weather conditions in different places"own" snow falls. In the Baltics and in the central regions, for example, it often snows in the form of large, complexly shaped branched snowflakes, sometimes shaggy flakes.

The snow is slippery because under the pressure and friction of the runners of the sleigh or skis, the surface particles of the snow cover melt, and the resulting film of water serves as a lubricant. The "slipperiness" therefore depends on the temperature of the snow and on the speed of travel. The largest snowflake was recorded on January 28, 1887 in the USA in the state of Montana. It was 38 cm in diameter.

Entertaining and informative about snow and snowflakes.

Do you know that…

1. A snowflake is one of the most fantastic examples of the self-organization of matter from simple to complex.

2. The most amazing thing about snowflakes is that none of them repeats the other. Astronomer Johannes Kepler in his treatise "New Year's gift. About hexagonal snowflakes ”explained the shape of the crystals by the will of God.

3. Snowflakes are absolutely transparent. They only appear white to us due to the refraction of light at the edges of the crystals.

4. In the Japanese city of Kaga, the Museum of Snow and Ice was opened, made in the form of three hexagonal buildings.

6. Snowflakes are 95% air, which results in low density and relatively slow falling speed (0.9 km/h).

7. Snow can be eaten. True, the energy consumption for eating snow is many times greater than its calorie content.

8. More than half of the population the globe never seen snow, except in photographs.

9. It turns out that ice is not equally cold. There is very cold ice, with a temperature of about minus 60 degrees, this is the ice of some Antarctic glaciers. The ice of the Greenland glaciers is much warmer. Its temperature is approximately minus 28 degrees. At all " warm ice"(with a temperature of about 0 degrees) lie on the peaks of the Alps and the Scandinavian mountains.

10. A layer of one centimeter of snow packed over the winter gives 25-35 cubic meters of water per 1 ha.

11. The amount of water "conserved" in the glaciers of the globe is 50 times less than the entire mass of ocean waters, and 7 times more water sushi. If the glaciers completely melted, then the level of the world ocean would rise by 800 meters.

12. Two or three icebergs of medium size contain a mass of water equal to the annual flow of the Volga (the annual flow of the Volga is 252 cubic kilometers).

13. There are black icebergs. The first press report about them appeared in 1773. The black color of icebergs is caused by the activity of volcanoes - the ice is covered with a thick layer of volcanic dust, which is not even washed off sea ​​water.

14. The US Postal Service issued 4 snowflake stamps in October 2006.

15. There are people who can judge the temperature of the air by the way the snow creaks.

American scientists have spent $ $ on finding out the fact that snowflakes are formed directly from steam, bypassing the rain stage.

17. Residents of Norway, who call snowmen "white trolls", are not advised to look at the snow creature at night because of the curtain. And if you stumble upon someone else's snowman at night, you should bypass it.

18. The legend of the very first snow - The rebellious angels at the time of the fall lost their snow-white wings, which covered the earth with a white shiny carpet. So snow appeared, and the first winter came.

"Snow Tales"

https://pandia.ru/text/78/230/images/image042_2.jpg" alt="(!LANG:Image" align="left" width="193" height="125">Всем, конечно, знакомы сказки о снежных волшебниках. В русской !} folk tale this is Morozko, and in Andersen's fairy tale - The Snow Queen. Remember how different they are? Morozko is kind and warm-hearted, and fair to the same. He generously endowed the industrious girl, and ridiculed the lazy and envious. The Snow Queen from Andersen's fairy tale appears before us in a completely different way. It is cold and uncomfortable in her ice palace, and the pieces of ice scattered by her around the world pierce into human hearts, and they become callous and evil. Two fairy tales about the rulers of the snow - and they are so different. The snow itself can be just as different. When it snows, this spectacle leaves no one indifferent. For some, the falling snow pleases, gives high spirits, while for others, on the contrary, it evokes sadness and sadness. Thanks to snow, every year we admire fabulous winter landscapes, but we love snow not only for this. Snow reserves affect the crop, the water level in the rivers. Snow is used to build winter roads and even airfields. But we do not even think about this useful role of snow. Snow for us is first of all a FAIRY TALE. Have you noticed that various monsters, mythical and fabulous, can live anywhere, but man has not settled them in the snow? But snow inspired a great many fairy tales to man. Snow and fairy tales have one common feature. Both fairy tales and snow tell us about miraculous TRANSFORMATIONS. As Cinderella turns into a princess, so does the sad black box under the fallen snow, as if by magic, it turns into a magnificent carpet sparkling in the sun. Snow is one of the amazing phenomena of nature. Its variability is almost mysterious.

Snegurochka - a girl from the snow.

Snow girl coming to us under New Year is a unique phenomenon. In no other New Year's mythology, except for Russian, there is a female character! Meanwhile, we ourselves know little about her ... They say she is made of snow ... And melts with love. So, at least, the writer Alexander Ostrovsky introduced the Snow Maiden in 1873, who can be safely considered the foster dad of the ice girl.
The true roots of the relationship of the Snow Maiden go to the pre-Christian mythology of the Slavs. AT northern regions pagan Russia there was a custom to make idols from snow and ice. And the image of a revived ice girl is often found in the legends of those times. The parents of the Snow Maiden turned out to be Frost and Spring-Krasna. The girl lived alone, in a dark cold forest, not showing her face to the sun, yearning and reaching out to people. And one day she came out of the thicket to them. According to Ostrovsky's fairy tale, the icy Snow Maiden was distinguished by fearfulness and modesty, but there was not a trace of spiritual coldness in her. But if her heart falls in love and becomes hot, the Snow Maiden will die! She knew this, and yet she made up her mind: she begged from Mother Spring the ability to love passionately. How it looked was demonstrated by the artists Vasnetsov, Vrubel and Roerich. It was thanks to their paintings that we learned that the Snow Maiden wears a pale blue caftan and a cap with an edge, and sometimes a kokoshnik. This was the first time children saw her at the festive tree of 1937 in the Moscow House of Unions.
The Snow Maiden did not come to Santa Claus right away. Although even before the revolution, Christmas trees were decorated with figurines of a snow girl, girls dressed up in costumes of the Snow Maiden. In Soviet Russia, officially celebrating the New Year was allowed only in 1935. Christmas trees began to be set up all over the country and Santa Claus was invited. But suddenly an assistant appeared next to him - a sweet, modest girl with a scythe over her shoulder, dressed in a blue fur coat. First a daughter, then - it is not known why - a granddaughter. The first joint appearance of Father Frost and the Snow Maiden took place in 1937 - since then it has been the custom. The Snow Maiden leads round dances with children, conveys their requests to Grandfather Frost, helps distribute gifts, sings songs and dances with birds and animals.
And the New Year is not the New Year without the glorious assistant of the main wizard of the country.

"Yukimi - tora" - "Lantern for admiring the snow"

https://pandia.ru/text/78/230/images/image045_2.jpg" alt="(!LANG:http://*****/public/news/5/1705/Museum-Nakaya-001_8 .jpg" align="left" width="247" height="184 src=">!} a letter from heaven, written in secret hieroglyphs. "He was the first to create a classification of snowflakes. The only snowflake museum in the world, located on the island of Hokkaido, is named after Nakaya.

"Summer Snow Festival"

August 5" href="/text/category/5_avgusta/" rel="bookmark">August 5, on the day of the Feast of the Snow of Mary, during mass, white flowers fall on the worshipers from under the dome. A blizzard of a million white roses.

"A small miracle with your own hands." Master class on making snowflakes.

Snowflake in 3D.

To make one snowflake, you will need: 6 square pieces of paper of the same size , scissors, ruler, pencil, tape, stapler, thread or other material for hanging a snowflake.

Operating procedure:

Quilling.

Quilling, also known as paper rolling, is an art that has been practiced since the Renaissance. The technique is as follows: narrow strips of paper are twisted into rolls, shaped and glued with glue.

A similar type of creativity existed in medieval Europe. At the peak of its popularity, quilling was popular among noble ladies who occupied themselves with it during their leisure hours, and works of this art were often published in women's magazines of that time.

To perform these works you will need a white office paper. It must be cut into strips 5 mm thick along the short side. It is better to cut with a clerical knife along the ruler several sheets at once. For a small amount, you can cut with scissors. You can twist the strips with different tools. You can use an awl, a special slotted rod, a toothpick. To make a snowflake (pendant or appliqué), you need to prepare a variety of different forms from twisted strips. Forms can be closed, i.e. glued and open, where no glue is used. Both are suitable for applications. And for snowflake pendants, you can use only closed forms.

Scheme of work:

The results are also different:

https://pandia.ru/text/78/230/images/image053_0.jpg" alt="(!LANG: snowflake, quilling technique" width="194" height="146">!}

How to cut a beautiful snowflake.

Conclusion.

If you live in cold climes, you know firsthand about winter, then you have at least one reason to be proud of it: unlike residents of hot countries, you can admire snowflakes in natural conditions. And this is not at all as prosaic as it seems, you just need to dress warmly and go outside, taking with you the most ordinary magnifying glass or magnifying glass. Believe me, it is very interesting to look at snowflakes, if only because two identical ones have never fallen to the ground.
And in general, we advise you to carry a magnifying glass in your coat pocket all winter, because you never know when the most beautiful snowflake will fall from the sky.
Where did the snow come from? The legend says that the rebellious angels lost their snow-white wings at the time of the fall. And so the snow appeared. Do you know that more than half of the world's population has never seen snow? Or seen, but only in photographs. In the Eskimo language, there are more than 20 words for the name of snow, in the Yakut language - about 70. Most snowflakes weigh about a milligram. But billions of snowflakes can affect the speed of the Earth's rotation. When the white airy beauties descend to the ground, the fun begins. Under the influence of temperature, wind, relief, snowflakes turn into a wide variety of snow forms. Round dances begin to circle in snow blizzards, howl together in a snowstorm, wrap houses and roads in fluffy impassable snowdrifts. Struck by the extremely complex shape, perfect symmetry and endless variety of snowflakes, people from ancient times associated their outlines with the action of supernatural forces or divine providence.

While working on the project, I learned a lot of new and interesting things and realized that this is not all the information about snow and snowflakes. The forms of snowflakes are inexhaustible, which means that you can study them endlessly, as well as admire them.

Used literature and sources INTERNET:

1. Perelman tasks and experiments. D.: VAP, 1994.-547 p.

2. Physics in nature /: Book. for students. - M.: Enlightenment, 199p.: ill.

3. Literary reading[Text]: 3 cells. : Textbook. : At 2 o'clock / . - 3rd ed. - M .: Akademkniga / Textbook, 2009. - Ch 1: 192 ., 16 reprod. : ill.

4. http://wsyachina. *****/physics/snow_2.html

5. http://upovara. info/forum/index. php? s=a5a460fa2cee1883b817b0a74c55d896&showtopic=1888

6. http://brembola. pereslavl. info/b7.htm

7. http://www. *****/snezhinka_iz_paper

8. http://go. *****/search? q=%D1%ED%E5%E3%20%E2%E8%EA%F2%EE%F0%E8%ED%E0

9. http://go. *****/search? q=%D1%ED%E5%E3%20%E2%20%F1%EA%E0%E7%EA%E0%F5%2C%20%EF%EE%F1%EB%EE%E2%E8%F6 %E0%F5%2C%20%EF%EE%E3%EE%E2%EE%F0%EA%E0%F5%2C%20%EF%F0%E8%EC%E5%F2%E0%F5

10. http://news. *****/society/2254437

11. http://*****/archives/412

12. http://www. snowtale. *****/gallery. html

Topic: "Snowflakes - the wings of angels that fell from heaven ..."

Place of work: MOU secondary school No. 9, 3rd grade, Irkutsk region, Ust-Kut

Scientific adviser: Fedotova Irina Vitalievna

1. Introduction.

2. Snowflakes - the wings of angels that fell from heaven:

• 
  History of the study of snowflakes;
• 
  Conditions for the birth of snowflakes;
• 
  Snowflake geometry;
• 
  Types of snowflakes;
• 
  Physics of snow.

• 
  Do you know that…;
• 
  Snow tales;
• 
  Snegurochka - a girl from the snow;
• 
  "Lantern for admiring the snow";
• 
  Excursion to the museum of snowflakes.
• 
  "Summer Snow Festival"

• 
  Snowflake in 3D format;
• 
  Quilling.
• 
  How to cut a beautiful snowflake;

5. Conclusion.

Introduction.

"Nature is so about everything

Made sure that everywhere

You find something to learn."

Leonardo Da Vinci

Snow is a great miracle of nature. The legend about the very first snow tells that the Rebellious Angels at the moment of the fall lost their snow-white wings, which covered the earth with a white shiny carpet. So snow appeared, and the first winter came.

When it snows, this spectacle leaves no one indifferent. For some, the falling snow pleases, gives high spirits, while for others, on the contrary, it evokes sadness and sadness. Thanks to snow, every year we admire fabulous winter landscapes, but we love snow not only for this. Snow reserves affect the crop, the water level in the rivers. Snow is used to build winter roads and even airfields. But we do not even think about this useful role of snow. Snow for us is first of all a FAIRY TALE. Have you noticed that various monsters, mythical and fabulous, can live anywhere, but man has not settled them in the snow? But snow inspired a great many fairy tales to man.

The most amazing thing about snowflakes is that none of them repeats the other. Astronomer Johannes Kepler in his treatise "New Year's gift. About hexagonal snowflakes ”explained the shape of the crystals by the will of God. If you live in cold climes, you know firsthand about winter, then you have at least one reason to be proud of it: unlike residents of hot countries, you can admire snowflakes in natural conditions. Believe me, it is very interesting to look at snowflakes, if only because two identical ones have never fallen to the ground.

^ PURPOSE OF THE WORK:

• 
  Familiarize yourself with the conditions for the birth of snowflakes;
• 
  Consider the division of snowflakes according to shape;
• 
  To get acquainted with the geometry and physics of snowflakes;
• 
  Learn myths, riddles, proverbs and sayings about snow;
• 
  Consider making unusual paper snowflakes.

• 
  As additional material in the lessons of the "World around" in grade 3;
• 
  At the lessons of natural history in the 5th grade;
• 
  At the lessons of visual geometry;
• 
  As material for messages;
• 
  In additional and optional classes for younger students.

"Snowflakes are the wings of angels that have fallen from heaven..."
^

The history of the study of snowflakes.

Year	Personality	What was observed
1550	Archbishop Olaf Magnus of Uppsala, Sweden	For the first time I observed snowflakes with the naked eye.
1611	Johannes Kepler, German astronomer and mathematician.	Published "A Treatise on Hexagonal Snowflakes"
1635	French mathematician Rene Descartes	Wrote "Study on the shape of snowflakes", observed a 12-ray snowflake
17th century	Robert Hooke	Concluded about six-pointed symmetry in the geometry of snowflakes
17th century	Donat Rosetti, Italian priest and mathematician	The first to classify snowflakes
17th century	William Scoresby, English whaler	first described snow crystals in the form of hexagonal pyramids, columns and their combinations
1839	Feudal ruler of the Land of the Rising Sun Tositsura Onakami Doi	made 97 drawings of "snow flowers".
1885	Wilson Bentley, American farmer Nicknamed "Snowflake"	Got the first successful photo of a snowflake under a microscope
1887	Nikolai Vasilyevich Kaulbars, member of the Russian Geographical Society	For the first time, he sketched and described a snowflake of an unusual shape
1939	Ukihiro Nogaya	Carried out a classification, created a museum of ice crystals
1994	Scientists at the University of Tokyo	We started growing artificial snow for the Sapporo Olympics
1951	International Commission on Snow and Ice	Adopted the classification of snowflakes
2008	Astronomer Kenneth Libbnecht

^ Conditions for the birth of snowflakes.

Snowflakes develop from small ice crystals shaped like hexagons. During very severe frosts (at temperatures below 30 degrees), ice crystals fall out in the form of "diamond dust" - in this case, a layer of very fluffy snow is formed on the surface of the earth, consisting of thin ice needles. Usually, in the course of their movement inside the ice cloud, ice crystals grow due to the direct transition of water vapor into ice. How exactly this growth occurs depends on external conditions, in particular on temperature and humidity, as shown in the figure:

Under certain conditions, ice hexagons grow intensively along their axis, and then elongated snowflakes form - snowflakes-columns, snowflakes-needles. Under other conditions, hexagons grow mainly in directions perpendicular to their axis, and then snowflakes form in the form hexagonal plates or hexagonal stars. A drop of water can freeze to a falling snowflake - as a result, a snowflake irregular shape. We see, therefore, that the popular belief that snowflakes look like hexagonal stars is erroneous. Moving up and down, they fall into a layer of air with supercooled water droplets. Here, the future snowflake begins to intensively increase in size. In this case, the convex sections of the snowflake grow faster. So, a six-pointed asterisk grows from an originally hexagonal plate. Faced on its way with supercooled droplets, the snowflake is simplified in shape. If it collides with a large drop, it can turn into a small hailstone.

^ Snowflake geometry.

P
look at the snowflake. If you mentally draw a straight line in the middle, it turns out that the right and left parts are the same, relative to the vertical line. This line is called the AXIS OF SYMMETRY. With the phenomenon of symmetry, we often meet in the surrounding life. In addition to mirror symmetry, bodies can also have rotational symmetry . The body has rotational symmetry if, when rotated through the corresponding angle, all parts of the figure are combined with each other. Depending on how many times the figure is aligned with itself during one complete rotation around the axis, the axis of symmetry has a different order (first, second, third, etc.).

Snowflakes have an axis of symmetry of the sixth order. Figures may have more center of symmetry . The center of symmetry is a point with respect to which any point of a figure has another point corresponding to it, which lies at the same distance from the center in the opposite direction. On snowflakes, it is easiest to make sure that the shape of the crystals is correct and symmetrical. The forms of snowflake stars are surprisingly diverse, but their symmetry is always the same: only six rays. Why? A snowflake can only be six-rayed - such is the symmetry of the structure of snow crystals.

The key to the mysterious symmetry of snowflakes lies in the structure of ice. As a result, snowflakes take the form of regular hexagonal prisms with smooth edges. Such prisms fall from the sky at relatively low humidity in a variety of temperature conditions. Sooner or later, bumps appear on the edges. Each bump attracts additional molecules to itself and begins to grow. A snowflake travels through the air for a long time, while the chances of meeting new water molecules at the protruding tubercle are somewhat higher than at the edges. So the rays grow very quickly on the snowflake. One thick beam grows from each face, since molecules do not tolerate emptiness. From the tubercles formed on this ray, branches grow. During the journey of a tiny snowflake, all its faces are in the same conditions, which serves as a prerequisite for the growth of the same rays on all six faces.

^ Types of snowflakes.

From observations and research conducted by scientists around the world, a collection of more than 5,000 thousand photographs of snowflakes was compiled. It has been revealed that there are ten main types of snowflakes: column snowflakes, needle snowflakes, plate snowflakes, star snowflakes, fern-like dendrites, prisms, spatial crystals and two of the rarest snowflakes are a triangle and a twelve-pointed star.

"Star"	"Column"	"Plate"
"Triangle"	"Flat"	"Needle"
"Space Crystals"	"Fern Dendrites"	"Twelve Pointed Star"

H step on fluffy snow on a frosty day. Do you hear? It is the sound of a myriad of crystals breaking. The lower the temperature, the harder and more fragile the snowflakes, and the stronger the crunch underfoot. Can you tell the temperature by hearing the sound of breaking snowflakes?
After all, each temperature has its own creaking tone.

Despite the fact that snowflakes are small, by the end of winter, the mass of snow cover in the northern hemisphere of the planet reaches 13,500 billion tons. Snow reflects up to 90% of sunlight into space.

We are used to seeing white snow. And is he white? The fact is that the complex shape of the ice floes strongly refracts light. As a result, snow reflects white sunlight.

However, there are times when a different color of snow is pronounced for the human eye. So, for example, in the Arctic and mountainous regions, pink or red snow, colored by algae living between its crystals, is considered common.

There are cases when blue, green, gray or black snow fell from the sky. So, on Christmas Day 1969, black snow fell on 16,000 square miles of Swedish territory. Most likely, this happened as a result of industrial waste emissions into the air.

In 1955, phosphorescent green snow fell near Dana, California. Some residents decided to try his flakes and soon died, the hands of those who dared only take it in their hands became covered with a rash, accompanied by severe itching. This phenomenon still creates controversy about the origin of snow. In the meantime, it is believed that the toxic fallout was the result of atomic tests in Nevada.

Wet snow in the mountains forms wet avalanches, which have tremendous destructive power and a cementing effect. Avalanches cause a lot of inconvenience to people, breaking down from the mountains at the most inopportune moment. Usually, avalanches form on slopes with a steepness of 25-45° (however, avalanches are known to descend from slopes with a steepness of 15-18°). On steeper slopes, snow does not accumulate in large quantities and rolls off in small doses as it accumulates. Any avalanches pose a threat, even with a volume of only a few cubic meters.

To When the white airy beauties descend to the ground, the fun begins. Under the influence of temperature, wind, relief, snowflakes turn into a wide variety of snow forms. Modern snow researchers have analyzed in detail any state of snowflakes.

The white color of a snowflake is the air enclosed in it. Light of all possible frequencies is reflected on the boundary surfaces between crystals and air and scattered. Since snowflakes are 95% air, this causes a relatively slow fall speed - they fall to the ground at a speed of about a kilometer per hour. The largest snowflake ever recorded was 12 centimeters in diameter. Usually, snowflakes have a diameter of about 5 mm, and the weight of this gentle creature is only 0.004 g. (By the way, it has been verified that when a snowflake falls into water, it creates an extremely high sound, inaudible to humans, but unpleasant for fish).

For lovers of records, we inform you that the largest snowflakes fell on April 30, 1944 in Moscow. Caught in the palm, they covered it almost entirely and resembled beautiful ostrich feathers. Scientists explained this phenomenon as follows: a wave of cold air descended from the area of ​​Franz Josef Land, the temperature dropped, and snowflakes began to form in the clouds. But snowflakes could not immediately fall to the ground: they were held up in the air by warm streams rising from the heated earth. Snowflakes floated in the air layers and stuck together, forming large flakes. The earth cooled down in the evening, the ascending air currents weakened, and an amazing snowfall began.

H and in the Far North, the snow is so hard that the ax, when struck, rings like it was hit on iron. Such snow polishes the surface of the soil, injures plants. And in Antarctica, a 3-4-meter layer of snow that has fallen in a few days becomes so dense that it is hardly torn open by a heavy knife of a powerful bulldozer.

It is known that even in the air snowflakes are constantly changing. Depending on the weather conditions, "own" snow falls in different places. In the Baltics and in the central regions, for example, it often snows in the form of large, complexly shaped branched snowflakes, sometimes shaggy flakes.

The snow is slippery because under the pressure and friction of the runners of the sleigh or skis, the surface particles of the snow cover melt, and the resulting film of water serves as a lubricant. The "slipperiness" therefore depends on the temperature of the snow and on the speed of travel. The largest snowflake was recorded on January 28, 1887 in the USA in the state of Montana. It was 38 cm in diameter.

^ Entertaining and informative about snow and snowflakes.

Do you know that…

1. A snowflake is one of the most fantastic examples of the self-organization of matter from simple to complex.

2. The most amazing thing about snowflakes is that none of them repeats the other. Astronomer Johannes Kepler in his treatise "New Year's gift. About hexagonal snowflakes ”explained the shape of the crystals by the will of God.

3. Snowflakes are absolutely transparent. They only appear white to us due to the refraction of light at the edges of the crystals.

4. In the Japanese city of Kaga, the Museum of Snow and Ice was opened, made in the form of three hexagonal buildings.

6. Snowflakes are 95% air, which results in low density and relatively slow falling speed (0.9 km/h).

7. Snow can be eaten. True, the energy consumption for eating snow is many times greater than its calorie content.

8. More than half of the world's population has never seen snow, except in photographs.

9. It turns out that ice is not equally cold. There is very cold ice, with a temperature of about minus 60 degrees, this is the ice of some Antarctic glaciers. The ice of the Greenland glaciers is much warmer. Its temperature is approximately minus 28 degrees. Quite "warm ice" (with a temperature of about 0 degrees) lie on the tops of the Alps and the Scandinavian mountains.

10. A layer of one centimeter of snow packed over the winter gives 25-35 cubic meters of water per 1 ha.

11. The amount of water "conserved" in the glaciers of the globe is 50 times less than the entire mass of ocean waters, and 7 times more than land waters. If the glaciers completely melted, then the level of the world ocean would rise by 800 meters.

12. Two or three icebergs of medium size contain a mass of water equal to the annual flow of the Volga (the annual flow of the Volga is 252 cubic kilometers).

13. There are black icebergs. The first press report about them appeared in 1773. The black color of icebergs is caused by the activity of volcanoes - the ice is covered with a thick layer of volcanic dust, which is not washed away even by sea water.

14. The US Postal Service issued 4 snowflake stamps in October 2006.

15. There are people who can judge the temperature of the air by the way the snow creaks.

16. US scientists spent $26,400,000 to find out that snowflakes form directly from steam, bypassing the rain stage.

17. Residents of Norway, who call snowmen "white trolls", are not advised to look at the snow creature at night because of the curtain. And if you stumble upon someone else's snowman at night, you should bypass it.

18. The legend of the very first snow - The rebellious angels at the time of the fall lost their snow-white wings, which covered the earth with a white shiny carpet. So snow appeared, and the first winter came.

"Snow Tales"

AT This, of course, is familiar with fairy tales about snow wizards. In a Russian folk tale, this is Morozko, and in Andersen's fairy tale, it is the Snow Queen. Remember how different they are? Morozko is kind and warm-hearted, and fair to the same. He generously endowed the industrious girl, and ridiculed the lazy and envious. The Snow Queen from Andersen's fairy tale appears before us in a completely different way. It is cold and uncomfortable in her ice palace, and the pieces of ice scattered by her around the world pierce into human hearts, and they become callous and evil. Two fairy tales about the rulers of the snow - and they are so different. The snow itself can be just as different. When it snows, this spectacle leaves no one indifferent. For some, the falling snow pleases, gives high spirits, while for others, on the contrary, it evokes sadness and sadness. Thanks to snow, every year we admire fabulous winter landscapes, but we love snow not only for this. Snow reserves affect the crop, the water level in the rivers. Snow is used to build winter roads and even airfields. But we do not even think about this useful role of snow. Snow for us is first of all a FAIRY TALE. Have you noticed that various monsters, mythical and fabulous, can live anywhere, but man has not settled them in the snow? But snow inspired a great many fairy tales to man. Snow and fairy tales have one thing in common. Both fairy tales and snow tell us about miraculous TRANSFORMATIONS. As Cinderella turns into a princess, so the dull black field under the fallen snow, as if by magic, turns into a magnificent carpet sparkling in the sun. Snow is one of the amazing phenomena of nature. Its variability is almost mysterious.

^ Snegurochka - a girl from the snow.

The snow girl who comes to us on New Year's Eve is a unique phenomenon. In no other New Year's mythology, except for Russian, there is a female character! Meanwhile, we ourselves know little about her ... They say she is made of snow ... And melts with love. So, at least, the writer Alexander Ostrovsky introduced the Snow Maiden in 1873, who can be safely considered the foster dad of the ice girl.
The true roots of the relationship of the Snow Maiden go to the pre-Christian mythology of the Slavs. In with In the northern regions of pagan Russia, there was a custom to make idols from snow and ice. And the image of a revived ice girl is often found in the legends of those times. The parents of the Snow Maiden turned out to be Frost and Spring-Krasna. The girl lived alone, in a dark cold forest, not showing her face to the sun, yearning and reaching out to people. And one day she came out of the thicket to them. According to Ostrovsky's fairy tale, the icy Snow Maiden was distinguished by fearfulness and modesty, but there was not a trace of spiritual coldness in her. But if her heart falls in love and becomes hot, the Snow Maiden will die! She knew this, and yet she made up her mind: she begged from Mother Spring the ability to love passionately. How it looked was demonstrated by the artists Vasnetsov, Vrubel and Roerich. It was thanks to their paintings that we learned that the Snow Maiden wears a pale blue caftan and a cap with an edge, and sometimes a kokoshnik. This was the first time children saw her at the festive tree of 1937 in the Moscow House of Unions.
The Snow Maiden did not come to Santa Claus right away. Although even before the revolution, Christmas trees were decorated with figurines of a snow girl, girls dressed up in costumes of the Snow Maiden. In Soviet Russia, officially celebrating the New Year was allowed only in 1935. Christmas trees began to be set up all over the country and Santa Claus was invited. But suddenly an assistant appeared next to him - a sweet, modest girl with a scythe over her shoulder, dressed in a blue fur coat. First a daughter, then - it is not known why - a granddaughter. The first joint appearance of Father Frost and the Snow Maiden took place in 1937 - since then it has been the custom. The Snow Maiden leads round dances with children, conveys their requests to Grandfather Frost, helps distribute gifts, sings songs and dances with birds and animals.
And the New Year is not the New Year without the glorious assistant of the main wizard of the country.

"Yukimi - tora" - "Lantern for admiring the snow"

AT Japanese culture has the concept of "yukimi" - "admiring the snow." The Japanese even have such a holiday. Still would! After all, such a complex form, ideal symmetry and variety of outlines, which this amazing creation of nature shows us, people at one time could only associate with the action of supernatural forces or with divine providence. In Japanese gardens, you can find an unusual stone lantern topped with a wide roof with upturned edges. This is Yukimi-Toro, a lantern for admiring the snow. Yukimi Festival is designed to give people the enjoyment of beauty Everyday life. Struck by the extremely complex shape, perfect symmetry and endless variety of snowflakes, people from ancient times associated their outlines with the action of supernatural forces or divine providence.

When the first snow falls, it falls on this lantern, which is illuminated from the inside. They say it is an exceptionally beautiful sight. Japanese culture is always conducive to reflection and reflection. Which actually contributes to the lantern admiring the snow or Yukimi-Toro.

^ Excursion to the Museum of snowflakes.

AT The small Japanese city of Kaga, located on the western coast of the island of Honshu, has an unusual museum. Snow and ice. It was founded by Ukihiro Nakaya, the first person who learned how to grow artificial snowflakes in the laboratory, as beautiful as those that fall from the sky. In this museum, visitors are surrounded on all sides regular hexagons, because it is precisely this symmetry that is characteristic of ordinary ice crystals. It determines many of its unique properties and causes snowflakes, with all their endless variety, to grow in the form of stars with six, less often three or twelve rays, but never four or five. In 1932, nuclear physicist Ukihiro Nakaya, a professor at the University of Hokkaido, started growing artificial snow crystals, which made it possible to compile the first classification of snowflakes and reveal the dependence of the size and shape of these formations on air temperature and humidity. In the city of Kaga, located on the western coast of the island of Honshu, there is the Museum of Snow and Ice founded by Ukihiro Nakaya, which now bears his name, is symbolically built in the form of three hexagons. The museum keeps a machine for making snowflakes. The Japanese scientist Nakaya Ukichiro called snow "a letter from heaven, written in secret hieroglyphs." He was the first to create a classification of snowflakes. The only snowflake museum in the world, located on the island of Hokkaido, is named after Nakaya.

"Summer Snow Festival"

At Catholics have a holiday of summer snowfall.
The holiday is dedicated to the legend, according to which the Virgin Mary, with fallen snow, indicated the place where Her temple should be erected.

Santa Maria Maggiore - the most famous church in Rome was built after one of the townspeople in the 4th century. saw a dream in which the Mother of God appeared, which indicated Right place for laying the temple. Like, build there, where it will snow in the morning. According to legend, the snow fell here. On August 5, on the day of the Feast of the Snow of Mary, white flowers fall from under the dome on the worshipers during mass. A blizzard of a million white roses.

"A small miracle with your own hands." Master class on making snowflakes.

Snowflake in 3D.

To make one snowflake, you will need: 6 square pieces of paper of the same size , scissors, ruler, pencil, tape, stapler, thread or other material for hanging a snowflake.

^ Operating procedure:

Quilling.

Quilling, also known as paper rolling, is an art that has been practiced since the Renaissance. The technique is as follows: narrow strips of paper are twisted into rolls, shaped and glued with glue.

A similar type of creativity existed in medieval Europe. At the peak of its popularity, quilling was popular among noble ladies who occupied themselves with it during their leisure hours, and works of this art were often published in women's magazines of that time.

To perform these works, you will need white office paper. It must be cut into strips 5 mm thick along the short side. It is better to cut with a clerical knife along the ruler several sheets at once. For a small amount, you can cut with scissors. You can twist the strips with different tools. You can use an awl, a special slotted rod, a toothpick. To make a snowflake (pendant or applique), you need to prepare a variety of shapes from twisted strips. Forms can be closed, i.e. glued and open, where no glue is used. Both are suitable for applications. And for snowflake pendants, you can use only closed forms.

^ Scheme of work:

The results are also different:

How to cut a beautiful snowflake.

1.	2.	3.
4.	5.	6.
7.	8.
Result

Conclusion.

If you live in cold climes, you know firsthand about winter, then you have at least one reason to be proud of it: unlike residents of hot countries, you can admire snowflakes in natural conditions. And this is not at all as prosaic as it seems, you just need to dress warmly and go outside, taking with you the most ordinary magnifying glass or magnifying glass. Believe me, it is very interesting to look at snowflakes, if only because two identical ones have never fallen to the ground.
And in general, we advise you to carry a magnifying glass in your coat pocket all winter, because you never know when the most beautiful snowflake will fall from the sky.
Where did the snow come from? The legend says that the rebellious angels lost their snow-white wings at the time of the fall. And so the snow appeared. Do you know that more than half of the world's population has never seen snow? Or seen, but only in photographs. In the Eskimo language, there are more than 20 words for the name of snow, in the Yakut language - about 70. Most snowflakes weigh about a milligram. But billions of snowflakes can affect the speed of the Earth's rotation. When the white airy beauties descend to the ground, the fun begins. Under the influence of temperature, wind, relief, snowflakes turn into a wide variety of snow forms. Round dances begin to circle in snow blizzards, howl together in a snowstorm, wrap houses and roads in fluffy impassable snowdrifts. Struck by the extremely complex shape, perfect symmetry and endless variety of snowflakes, people from ancient times associated their outlines with the action of supernatural forces or divine providence.

While working on the project, I learned a lot of new and interesting things and realized that this is not all the information about snow and snowflakes. The forms of snowflakes are inexhaustible, which means that you can study them endlessly, as well as admire them.

Used literature and sources INTERNET:

1. 
   Perelman Ya. I. Entertaining tasks and experiences. D.: VAP, 1994.-547 p.
2. 
   Physics in nature / Tarasov L.V.: Book. for students. – M.: Enlightenment, 1998.- 351 p.: ill.
3. 
   Literary reading [Text]: 3 cells. : Textbook. : At 2 pm / N. A. Churakova. - 3rd ed. - M .: Akademkniga / Textbook, 2009. - Ch 1: 192 ., 16 reprod. : ill.

Rachkovsky Semyon Viktorovich

This article is about snow. More precisely, about the beautiful and perfect creation of nature - a snowflake. Snowflake fluffy and prickly, sparkling and shining, mysterious and unique. And it also tells about those who saw and discovered for us in the familiar and ordinary the beauty hidden by nature and tried to measure and capture it. Many interesting, unusual, sometimes stunning facts are known, one way or another concerning snow and snowflakes. Most people would say that snow is physical phenomenon resulting from the crystallization of water in the air. This is certainly true, but snow is also a whole world consisting of many creatures - snowflakes. Their diversity is amazing. The snowflake is so beautiful, but elusive. Stretch your hand to her, and she will disappear, turning into a drop of water. For how many years people have been trying to unravel the mysteries of snowflakes, and there is no certainty that all of them have been solved. Struck by the extremely complex shape, perfect symmetry and endless variety of snowflakes, people from ancient times associated their outlines with the action of supernatural forces or divine providence. They admire snowflakes, study them, sing songs about them and write poems. Everything about snowflakes is interesting - both their geometry and physical properties, and creating models of snowflakes. Snowflakes are called "cold perfection". And according to legend, snowflakes are the wings of angels that fell from the sky.

Download:

Preview:

Topic: "Snowflakes - the wings of angels that fell from heaven ..."

Place of work: MOU secondary school No. 9, 3rd grade, Irkutsk region, Ust-Kut

Scientific adviser:Fedotova Irina Vitalievna

2010

1. Introduction.

2. Snowflakes - the wings of angels that fell from heaven:

1. History of the study of snowflakes;
2. Conditions for the birth of snowflakes;
3. Snowflake geometry;
4. Types of snowflakes;
5. Physics of snow.

3. Entertaining and informative about snow and snowflake.

1. Do you know that…;
2. Snow tales;
3. Snegurochka - a girl from the snow;
4. "Lantern for admiring the snow";
5. Excursion to the museum of snowflakes.
6. "Summer Snow Festival"

4. A small miracle with your own hands.

1. Snowflake in 3D format;
2. Quilling.
3. How to cut a beautiful snowflake;

5. Conclusion.

Introduction.

"Nature is so about everything

Made sure that everywhere

You find something to learn."

Leonardo Da Vinci

Snow is a great miracle of nature.The legend about the very first snow tells that the Rebellious Angels at the moment of the fall lost their snow-white wings, which covered the earth with a white shiny carpet. So snow appeared, and the first winter came.

When it snows, this spectacle leaves no one indifferent. For some, the falling snow pleases, gives high spirits, while for others, on the contrary, it evokes sadness and sadness. Thanks to snow, every year we admire fabulous winter landscapes, but we love snow not only for this. Snow reserves affect the crop, the water level in the rivers. Snow is used to build winter roads and even airfields. But we do not even think about this useful role of snow. Snow for us is first of all a FAIRY TALE. Have you noticed that various monsters, mythical and fabulous, can live anywhere, but man has not settled them in the snow? But snow inspired a great many fairy tales to man.

The most amazing thing about snowflakes is that none of them repeats the other. Astronomer Johannes Kepler in his treatise "New Year's gift. About hexagonal snowflakes ”explained the shape of the crystals by the will of God.If you live in cold climes, you know firsthand about winter, then you have at least one reason to be proud of it: unlike residents of hot countries, you can admire snowflakes in natural conditions. Believe me, it is very interesting to look at snowflakes, if only because two identical ones have never fallen to the ground.

PURPOSE OF THE WORK:

1. Familiarize yourself with the conditions for the birth of snowflakes;
2. Consider the division of snowflakes according to shape;
3. To get acquainted with the geometry and physics of snowflakes;
4. Learn myths, riddles, proverbs and sayings about snow;
5. Consider making unusual paper snowflakes.

THIS WORK CAN BE USED:

1. As additional material in the lessons of the "World around" in grade 3;
2. At the lessons of natural history in the 5th grade;
3. At the lessons of visual geometry;
4. As material for messages;
5. In additional and optional classes for younger students.

"Snowflakes are the wings of angels that have fallen from heaven..."

The history of the study of snowflakes.

It is difficult to say when a person first admired this miracle of nature. The forms of snowflakes are unusually diverse - there are more than five thousand of their variations.

Conditions for the birth of snowflakes.

Snowflakes develop from small ice crystals shaped like hexagons. During very severe frosts (at temperatures below 30 degrees), ice crystals fall out in the form of "diamond dust" - in this case, a layer of very fluffy snow is formed on the surface of the earth, consisting of thin ice needles. Usually, in the course of their movement inside the ice cloud, ice crystals grow due to the direct transition of water vapor into ice. How exactly this growth occurs depends on external conditions, in particular on temperature and humidity, as shown in the figure:

Under certain conditions, ice hexagons grow intensively along their axis, and then elongated snowflakes form -snowflakes-columns, snowflakes-needles. Under other conditions, hexagons grow mainly in directions perpendicular to their axis, and then snowflakes form in the formhexagonal plates or hexagonal stars. A drop of water can freeze to a falling snowflake - as a result, asnowflake irregular shape.We see, therefore, that the popular belief that snowflakes look like hexagonal stars is erroneous. Moving up and down, they fall into a layer of air with supercooled water droplets. Here, the future snowflake begins to intensively increase in size. In this case, the convex sections of the snowflake grow faster. So, a six-pointed asterisk grows from an originally hexagonal plate. Faced on its way with supercooled droplets, the snowflake is simplified in shape. If it collides with a large drop, it can turn into a small hailstone.

Snowflake geometry.

Look at the snowflake. If you mentally draw a straight line in the middle, it turns out that the right and left parts are the same, relative to the vertical line. This line is called the AXIS OF SYMMETRY. With the phenomenon of symmetry, we often meet in the surrounding life. In addition to mirror symmetry, bodies can also haverotational symmetry. The body has rotational symmetry if, when rotated through the corresponding angle, all parts of the figure are combined with each other. Depending on how many times the figure is aligned with itself during one complete rotation around the axis, the axis of symmetry has a different order (first, second, third, etc.).

Snowflakes have an axis of symmetry of the sixth order. Figures may have morecenter of symmetry. The center of symmetry is a point with respect to which any point of a figure has another point corresponding to it, which lies at the same distance from the center in the opposite direction. On snowflakes, it is easiest to make sure that the shape of the crystals is correct and symmetrical. The forms of snowflake stars are surprisingly diverse, but their symmetry is always the same: only six rays. Why? A snowflake can only be six-rayed - such is the symmetry of the structure of snow crystals.

The key to the mysterious symmetry of snowflakes lies in the structure of ice. As a result, snowflakes take the form of regular hexagonal prisms with smooth edges. Such prisms fall from the sky at relatively low humidity in a variety of temperature conditions. Sooner or later, bumps appear on the edges. Each bump attracts additional molecules to itself and begins to grow. A snowflake travels through the air for a long time, while the chances of meeting new water molecules at the protruding tubercle are somewhat higher than at the edges. So the rays grow very quickly on the snowflake. One thick beam grows from each face, since molecules do not tolerate emptiness. From the tubercles formed on this ray, branches grow. During the journey of a tiny snowflake, all its faces are in the same conditions, which serves as a prerequisite for the growth of the same rays on all six faces.

Types of snowflakes.

From observations and research conducted by scientists around the world, a collection of more than 5,000 thousand photographs of snowflakes was compiled. It has been revealed that there are ten main types of snowflakes: column snowflakes, needle snowflakes, plate snowflakes, star snowflakes, fern-like dendrites, prisms, spatial crystals and two of the rarest snowflakes are a triangle and a twelve-pointed star.

Physics of snow.

Step on fluffy snow on a frosty day. Do you hear? It is the sound of a myriad of crystals breaking. The lower the temperature, the harder and more fragile the snowflakes, and the stronger the crunch underfoot. Can you tell the temperature by hearing the sound of breaking snowflakes?
After all, each temperature has its own creaking tone.

Despite the fact that snowflakes are small, by the end of winter, the mass of snow cover in the northern hemisphere of the planet reaches 13,500 billion tons. Snow reflects up to 90% of sunlight into space.

We are used to seeing white snow. And is he white? The fact is that the complex shape of the ice floes strongly refracts light. As a result, snow reflects white sunlight.

However, there are times when a different color of snow is pronounced for the human eye. So, for example, in the Arctic and mountainous regions, pink or red snow, colored by algae living between its crystals, is considered common.

There are cases when blue, green, gray or black snow fell from the sky. So, on Christmas Day 1969, black snow fell on 16,000 square miles of Swedish territory. Most likely, this happened as a result of industrial waste emissions into the air.

In 1955, phosphorescent green snow fell near Dana, California. Some residents decided to try his flakes and soon died, the hands of those who dared only take it in their hands became covered with a rash, accompanied by severe itching. This phenomenon still creates controversy about the origin of snow. In the meantime, it is believed that the toxic fallout was the result of atomic tests in Nevada.

Wet snow in the mountains forms wet avalanches, which have tremendous destructive power and a cementing effect. Avalanches cause a lot of inconvenience to people, breaking down from the mountains at the most inopportune moment. Usually, avalanches form on slopes with a steepness of 25-45° (however, avalanches are known to descend from slopes with a steepness of 15-18°). On steeper slopes, snow does not accumulate in large quantities and rolls off in small doses as it accumulates. Any avalanches pose a threat, even with a volume of only a few cubic meters.

When the white airy beauties descend to the ground, the fun begins. Under the influence of temperature, wind, relief, snowflakes turn into a wide variety of snow forms. Modern snow researchers have analyzed in detail any state of snowflakes.

The white color of a snowflake is the air enclosed in it. Light of all possible frequencies is reflected on the boundary surfaces between crystals and air and scattered. Since snowflakes are 95% air, this causes a relatively slow fall speed - they fall to the ground at a speed of about a kilometer per hour. The largest snowflake ever recorded was 12 centimeters in diameter. Usually, snowflakes have a diameter of about 5 mm, and the weight of this gentle creature is only 0.004 g. (By the way, it has been verified that when a snowflake falls into water, it creates an extremely high sound, inaudible to humans, but unpleasant for fish).

For lovers of records, we inform you that the largest snowflakes fell on April 30, 1944 in Moscow. Caught in the palm, they covered it almost entirely and resembled beautiful ostrich feathers. Scientists explained this phenomenon as follows: a wave of cold air descended from the area of ​​Franz Josef Land, the temperature dropped, and snowflakes began to form in the clouds. But snowflakes could not immediately fall to the ground: they were held up in the air by warm streams rising from the heated earth. Snowflakes floated in the air layers and stuck together, forming large flakes. The earth cooled down in the evening, the ascending air currents weakened, and an amazing snowfall began.

In the Far North, the snow is so hard that the ax, when struck, rings like it was hit on iron. Such snow polishes the surface of the soil, injures plants. And in Antarctica, a 3-4-meter layer of snow that has fallen in a few days becomes so dense that it is hardly torn open by a heavy knife of a powerful bulldozer.

It is known that even in the air snowflakes are constantly changing. Depending on the weather conditions, "own" snow falls in different places. In the Baltics and in the central regions, for example, it often snows in the form of large, complexly shaped branched snowflakes, sometimes shaggy flakes.

The snow is slippery because under the pressure and friction of the runners of the sleigh or skis, the surface particles of the snow cover melt, and the resulting film of water serves as a lubricant. The "slipperiness" therefore depends on the temperature of the snow and on the speed of travel.The largest snowflake was recorded on January 28, 1887 in the USA in the state of Montana. It was 38 cm in diameter.

Entertaining and informative about snow and snowflakes.

Do you know that…

1. A snowflake is one of the most fantastic examples of the self-organization of matter from simple to complex.

2. The most amazing thing about snowflakes is that none of them repeats the other. Astronomer Johannes Kepler in his treatise "New Year's gift. About hexagonal snowflakes ”explained the shape of the crystals by the will of God.

3. Snowflakes are absolutely transparent. They only appear white to us due to the refraction of light at the edges of the crystals.

4. In the Japanese city of Kaga, the Museum of Snow and Ice was opened, made in the form of three hexagonal buildings.

6. Snowflakes are 95% air, which results in low density and relatively slow falling speed (0.9 km/h).

7. Snow can be eaten. True, the energy consumption for eating snow is many times greater than its calorie content.

8. More than half of the world's population has never seen snow, except in photographs.

9. It turns out that ice is not equally cold. There is very cold ice, with a temperature of about minus 60 degrees, this is the ice of some Antarctic glaciers. The ice of the Greenland glaciers is much warmer. Its temperature is approximately minus 28 degrees. Quite "warm ice" (with a temperature of about 0 degrees) lie on the tops of the Alps and the Scandinavian mountains.

10. A layer of one centimeter of snow packed over the winter gives 25-35 cubic meters of water per 1 ha.

11. The amount of water "conserved" in the glaciers of the globe is 50 times less than the entire mass of ocean waters, and 7 times more than land waters. If the glaciers completely melted, then the level of the world ocean would rise by 800 meters.

12. Two or three icebergs of medium size contain a mass of water equal to the annual flow of the Volga (the annual flow of the Volga is 252 cubic kilometers).

13. There are black icebergs. The first press report about them appeared in 1773. The black color of icebergs is caused by the activity of volcanoes - the ice is covered with a thick layer of volcanic dust, which is not washed away even by sea water.

14. The US Postal Service issued 4 snowflake stamps in October 2006.

15. There are people who can judge the temperature of the air by the way the snow creaks.

16. US scientists spent $26,400,000 to find out that snowflakes form directly from steam, bypassing the rain stage.

17. Residents of Norway, who call snowmen "white trolls", are not advised to look at the snow creature at night because of the curtain. And if you stumble upon someone else's snowman at night, you should bypass it.

18. The legend of the very first snow - The rebellious angels at the time of the fall lost their snow-white wings, which covered the earth with a white shiny carpet. So snow appeared, and the first winter came.

"Snow Tales"

Everyone, of course, is familiar with fairy tales about snow wizards. In a Russian folk tale, this is Morozko, and in Andersen's fairy tale, it is the Snow Queen. Remember how different they are? Morozko is kind and warm-hearted, and fair to the same. He generously endowed the industrious girl, and ridiculed the lazy and envious. The Snow Queen from Andersen's fairy tale appears before us in a completely different way. It is cold and uncomfortable in her ice palace, and the pieces of ice scattered by her around the world pierce into human hearts, and they become callous and evil. Two fairy tales about the rulers of the snow - and they are so different. The snow itself can be just as different. When it snows, this spectacle leaves no one indifferent. For some, the falling snow pleases, gives high spirits, while for others, on the contrary, it evokes sadness and sadness. Thanks to snow, every year we admire fabulous winter landscapes, but we love snow not only for this. Snow reserves affect the crop, the water level in the rivers. Snow is used to build winter roads and even airfields. But we do not even think about this useful role of snow. Snow for us is first of all a FAIRY TALE. Have you noticed that various monsters, mythical and fabulous, can live anywhere, but man has not settled them in the snow? But snow inspired a great many fairy tales to man.Snow and fairy tales have one thing in common. Both fairy tales and snow tell us about miraculous TRANSFORMATIONS. As Cinderella turns into a princess, so the dull black field under the fallen snow, as if by magic, turns into a magnificent carpet sparkling in the sun. Snow is one of the amazing phenomena of nature. Its variability is almost mysterious.

Snegurochka - a girl from the snow.

The snow girl who comes to us on New Year's Eve is a unique phenomenon. In no other New Year's mythology, except for Russian, there is a female character! Meanwhile, we ourselves know little about her ... They say she is made of snow ... And melts with love. So, at least, the writer Alexander Ostrovsky introduced the Snow Maiden in 1873, who can be safely considered the foster dad of the ice girl.
The true roots of the relationship of the Snow Maiden go to the pre-Christian mythology of the Slavs. In the northern regions of pagan Russia, there was a custom to make idols from snow and ice. And the image of a revived ice girl is often found in the legends of those times. The parents of the Snow Maiden turned out to be Frost and Spring-Krasna. The girl lived alone, in a dark cold forest, not showing her face to the sun, yearning and reaching out to people. And one day she came out of the thicket to them. According to Ostrovsky's fairy tale, the icy Snow Maiden was distinguished by fearfulness and modesty, but there was not a trace of spiritual coldness in her. But if her heart falls in love and becomes hot, the Snow Maiden will die! She knew this, and yet she made up her mind: she begged from Mother Spring the ability to love passionately. How it looked was demonstrated by the artists Vasnetsov, Vrubel and Roerich. It was thanks to their paintings that we learned that the Snow Maiden wears a pale blue caftan and a cap with an edge, and sometimes a kokoshnik. This was the first time children saw her at the festive tree of 1937 in the Moscow House of Unions.
The Snow Maiden did not come to Santa Claus right away. Although even before the revolution, Christmas trees were decorated with figurines of a snow girl, girls dressed up in costumes of the Snow Maiden. In Soviet Russia, officially celebrating the New Year was allowed only in 1935. Christmas trees began to be set up all over the country and Santa Claus was invited. But suddenly an assistant appeared next to him - a sweet, modest girl with a scythe over her shoulder, dressed in a blue fur coat. First a daughter, then - it is not known why - a granddaughter. The first joint appearance of Father Frost and the Snow Maiden took place in 1937 - since then it has been the custom. The Snow Maiden leads round dances with children, conveys their requests to Grandfather Frost, helps distribute gifts, sings songs and dances with birds and animals.
And the New Year is not the New Year without the glorious assistant of the main wizard of the country.

"Yukimi - tora" - "Lantern for admiring the snow"

In Japanese culture, there is the concept of "yukimi" - "admiring the snow." The Japanese even have such a holiday. Still would! After all, such a complex form, ideal symmetry and variety of outlines, which this amazing creation of nature shows us, people at one time could only associate with the action of supernatural forces or with divine providence.In Japanese gardens, you can find an unusual stone lantern topped with a wide roof with upturned edges. This is Yukimi-Toro, a lantern for admiring the snow. The Yukimi festival is designed to give people enjoyment of the beauty of everyday life. Struck by the extremely complex shape, perfect symmetry and endless variety of snowflakes, people from ancient times associated their outlines with the action of supernatural forces or divine providence.

When the first snow falls, it falls on this lantern, which is illuminated from the inside. They say it is an exceptionally beautiful sight. Japanese culture is always conducive to reflection and reflection. Which actually contributes to the lantern admiring the snow or Yukimi-Toro.

Excursion to the Museum of snowflakes.

In the small Japanese city of Kaga, located on the western coast of the island of Honshu, there is an unusual museum. Snow and ice. It was founded by Ukihiro Nakaya, the first person who learned how to grow artificial snowflakes in the laboratory, as beautiful as those that fall from the sky. In this museum, visitors are surrounded on all sides by regular hexagons, because it is precisely this symmetry that is characteristic of ordinary ice crystals. It determines many of its unique properties and causes snowflakes, with all their endless variety, to grow in the form of stars with six, less often three or twelve rays, but never four or five.In 1932, nuclear physicist Ukihiro Nakaya, a professor at the University of Hokkaido, started growing artificial snow crystals, which made it possible to compile the first classification of snowflakes and reveal the dependence of the size and shape of these formations on air temperature and humidity. In the city of Kaga, located on the western coast of the island of Honshu, there is the Museum of Snow and Ice founded by Ukihiro Nakaya, which now bears his name, is symbolically built in the form of three hexagons. The museum keeps a machine for making snowflakes.The Japanese scientist Nakaya Ukichiro called snow "a letter from heaven, written in secret hieroglyphs." He was the first to create a classification of snowflakes. The only snowflake museum in the world, located on the island of Hokkaido, is named after Nakaya.

"Summer Snow Festival"

Catholics have a summer snowfall holiday.
The holiday is dedicated to the legend, according to which the Virgin Mary, with fallen snow, indicated the place where Her temple should be erected.

Santa Maria Maggiore - the most famous church in Rome was built after one of the townspeople in the 4th century. I saw a dream in which the Mother of God appeared, which indicated the right place for laying the temple. Like, build there, where it will snow in the morning. According to legend, the snow fell here. On August 5, on the day of the Feast of the Snow of Mary, white flowers fall from under the dome on the worshipers during mass. A blizzard of a million white roses.

"A small miracle with your own hands." Master class on making snowflakes.

Snowflake in 3D.

To make one snowflake, you will need: 6 square leaves paper the same size, scissors, ruler, pencil, adhesive tape, stapler, thread or other material for hanging a snowflake.

Operating procedure:

Quilling.

Quilling, also known as paper rolling, is an art that has been practiced since the Renaissance. The technique is as follows: narrow strips of paper are twisted into rolls, shaped and glued with glue.

A similar type of creativity existed in medieval Europe. At the peak of its popularity, quilling was popular among noble ladies who occupied themselves with it during their leisure hours, and works of this art were often published in women's magazines of that time.

To perform these works, you will need white office paper. It must be cut into strips 5 mm thick along the short side. It is better to cut with a clerical knife along the ruler several sheets at once. For a small amount, you can cut with scissors. You can twist the strips with different tools. You can use an awl, a special slotted rod, a toothpick. To make a snowflake (pendant or applique), you need to prepare a variety of shapes from twisted strips. Forms can be closed, i.e. glued and open, where no glue is used. Both are suitable for applications. And for snowflake pendants, you can use only closed forms.

Scheme of work:

The results are also different:

How to cut a beautiful snowflake.

Conclusion.

If you live in cold climes, you know firsthand about winter, then you have at least one reason to be proud of it: unlike residents of hot countries, you can admire snowflakes in natural conditions. And this is not at all as prosaic as it seems, you just need to dress warmly and go outside, taking with you the most ordinary magnifying glass or magnifying glass. Believe me, it is very interesting to look at snowflakes, if only because two identical ones have never fallen to the ground.
And in general, we advise you to carry a magnifying glass in your coat pocket all winter, because you never know when the most beautiful snowflake will fall from the sky.
Where did the snow come from? The legend says that the rebellious angels lost their snow-white wings at the time of the fall. And so the snow appeared. Do you know that more than half of the world's population has never seen snow? Or seen, but only in photographs.In the Eskimo language, there are more than 20 words for the name of snow, in the Yakut language - about 70.Most snowflakes weigh about a milligram. But billions of snowflakes can affect the speed of the Earth's rotation. When the white airy beauties descend to the ground, the fun begins. Under the influence of temperature, wind, relief, snowflakes turn into a wide variety of snow forms. Round dances begin to circle in snow blizzards, howl together in a snowstorm, wrap houses and roads in fluffy impassable snowdrifts.Struck by the extremely complex shape, perfect symmetry and endless variety of snowflakes, people from ancient times associated their outlines with the action of supernatural forces or divine providence.

While working on the project, I learned a lot of new and interesting things and realized that this is not all the information about snow and snowflakes. The forms of snowflakes are inexhaustible, which means that you can study them endlessly, as well as admire them.

Used literature and sources INTERNET:

1. Perelman Ya. I. Entertaining tasks and experiments. D.: VAP, 1994.-547 p.
2. Physics in nature / Tarasov L.V.: Book. for students. – M.: Enlightenment, 1998.- 351 p.: ill.
3. Literary reading [Text]: 3 cells. : Textbook. : At 2 pm / N. A. Churakova. - 3rd ed. - M .: Akademkniga / Textbook, 2009. - Ch 1: 192 ., 16 reprod. : ill.
4. http://wsyachina.narod.ru/physics/snow_2.html
5. http://upovara.info/forum/index.php?s=a5a460fa2cee1883b817b0a74c55d896&showtopic=1888
6. http://brembola.pereslavl.info/b7.htm
7. http://www.cwer.ru/snezhinka_iz_bumagi
8. http://go.mail.ru/search?q=%D1%ED%E5%E3%20%E2%E8%EA%F2%EE%F0%E8%ED%E0
9. http://go.mail.ru/search?q=%D1%ED%E5%E3%20%E2%20%F1%EA%E0%E7%EA%E0%F5%2C%20%EF%EE %F1%EB%EE%E2%E8%F6%E0%F5%2C%20%EF%EE%E3%EE%E2%EE%F0%EA%E0%F5%2C%20%EF%F0%E8 %EC%E5%F2%E0%F5
10. http://news.mail.ru/society/2254437
11. http://rusfolklor.ru/archives/412
12. http://www.snowtale.spb.ru/gallery.html

Dear readers, hello! We have a new, well, very entertaining project. All of us have caught small white parachutes falling from the sky on mittens or in warm palms, and sometimes right in our mouths! But where do these patterned ice crystals come from, and do you know what snowflakes are?

Lesson plan:

How do snowflakes appear?

Snowflakes exist in nature thanks to water vapor. From the accumulation of water rain falls in the summer, but in winter the cold air freezes small droplets of water and as a result it snows.

How does this fragile miracle come about? The beginning of each patterned crystal is given by its middle - the core, which can be any speck of dust from the cloud. This speck of dust, as it moves through the clouds, is overgrown with transparent ice crystals, which give it certain form. Gradually, so many crystals are glued that the weight of the dust particle makes it fall to the ground.

If you carefully consider the patterns of snowflakes falling from the sky, you can easily notice that none of them is similar to the other.

Interesting Facts! An ordinary snowflake weighs about 1 milligram, rarely 2 or 3. But the most Bolshukhansky ones fell in 1944 in Moscow. You can't even call them snowflakes. The size of a palm, they looked more like ostrich feathers.

Why are snowflakes different?

The question of why ice crystals fall from the sky in different shapes has always been of interest to scientists. The first to think about their structure was the German astronomer Kepler. He wondered why pentagonal or heptagonal snowflakes did not fall from the sky.

The French mathematician Descartes first made detailed description, what ice crystals might look like, and divided them into groups. Rare forms are mentioned in his works.

When the microscope was invented, the British physicist Hooke published graphic images snowflakes, showing all the unique intricate patterns of the wonder of nature.

Russian photographer Sigson even managed to take a photo of about two hundred different snowflakes. But the real snow pioneer of photography was the American Bentley, who took 5,000 photographs in his life, of which 2,500 were included in the book Snow Crystals.

Japanese physicist Nakaya learned how to grow snowflakes in the lab. He poetically called them letters from heaven.

As a result of the work of scientists from different countries it became clear that

• in nature there is no other form of snowflakes, except for hexagonal,
• the species depends on the environment in which the ice crystal is born,
• among the factors affecting the shape are air temperature and humidity,
• the simplest patterns appear when the air is not very humid,
• the higher the percentage of humidity and air temperature, the more complex and beautiful the snowflake turns out.
• the angle between the beams can be either 60 or 120 degrees.

Interesting Facts! A snowflake falling on the water creates a high pitched sound. A person, of course, does not hear him, but, as scientists say, such noise is extremely unpleasant for fish.

Now you know where snowflakes come from and why they are different. All ice crystals were conventionally divided into seven simple groups and given their conventional names.

Plate

The simplest of all, thin and flat. She has many edges that divide the crystal into parts.

Column

These snowflakes, resembling a hollow hexagonal pencil, are the most common of all shapes. It can be blunt or pointed at the ends.

Column with a tip

This type is obtained if an ordinary column falls into certain conditions under which the crystal changes the direction of its growth and gradually turns into a plate at the ends. For example, this happens when moving to another temperature zone under the influence of wind.

Needle

This is a kind of columnar snowflake that has grown thin and long. It happens that they have a cavity inside, but sometimes they open at the ends in the form of branches.

Stars

This specimen has a beautiful branching silhouette that we love to admire. It has six absolutely symmetrical main rays and many different branches. They are about 5 mm in size and are usually flat.

Spatial dendrites

Amazing patterned crystals are voluminous due to the combination of various other types.

Wrong snowflakes

Yes, there is also such a group, which includes damaged representatives who, on the way to us, damaged their branches or completely broke into pieces. Such crippled snowflakes are usually obtained in strong winds, there are many of them in wet snow.

Remember, we talked about the fact that different forms are obtained when different conditions? So here it is

• stars are usually obtained at temperatures down to -5 degrees,
• but the needles - from -5 to -10,
• for complex dendrites, the temperature should be at least -10 and not lower than -20 degrees,
• but plates and columns of different sizes are formed even with air at -35.

Interesting Facts! It is estimated that half of the inhabitants of the Earth have never seen snowflakes. But they have a chance to come north or visit the world's only snowflake museum in Japan on the island of Hokkaido.

Here is an interesting project we have today. Look to us more often, there is still a lot of interesting things in the world to tell about!

By the way, we have already talked about many interesting things. For example, about . we met winter folk omens, and learned more about ball lightning.
Evgenia Klimkovich.

It seems that there is nothing more weightless than tiny snowflakes: if it falls on your hand, you won't feel it. A thin “net” seems to be hanging in the air, and they all fall, fall - hundreds, millions, billions ... In a few hours, vast spaces are covered with a fluffy “blanket”. When it snows, you rarely think about the nature of snow, even less often - snowflakes. (Hurry up to go home - in warmth!) But it turns out - this is a complex structure of ice crystals linked to each other. There are many options for “assembling” snowflakes - so far it has not been possible to find two identical ...

A crystal snowflake floated in the sky.
Friends are flying nearby - it's not scary in the clouds.
One she is a snowflake, and millions are snow,
And from a height of heaven - a swift run.
The flight is pleasant in the sky, but soon on the ground
They will turn into snowdrifts to the joy of the children! ..
Crystal snowflake - when she is alone!
Oleg ESIN

Mystery of birth

How does ordinary water, freezing, form such a multitude of symmetrical lacy shapes? To understand why snowflakes look so beautiful, let's get acquainted with the life story of one snow crystal.
Clouds always contain ice or foreign dust particles. They serve as the basis for the tiny core of the snowflake. Molecules of water vapor, moving chaotically, cool down and, losing speed, “are eager to land”. And then there's the dust! Thanks to the crystals, it acquires patterns and turns from an “ugly duckling into a beautiful swan” - a crystal snowflake.

Law breakers

Each snowflake is unique. Back in the 17th century, the philosopher and mathematician R. Descartes wrote that these creatures look like roses, lilies, wheels with six teeth. He was particularly struck by the “tiny white dot” located in the center of the snowflake, as if it were the footprint of a compass, which was used to outline its circumference. The great astronomer I. Kepler explained the shape of snowflakes by the will of God... Be that as it may, isn't it a miracle?! Real magic!
Magic is magic, but how does such a variety of snowflakes turn out? It turns out that under some conditions, the “ice” grows intensively along the axis, forming elongated columns and needles, in others they prefer to grow perpendicular to the axis, eventually showing plates or stars. Everything seems to be simple and clear.
And yet there is one mystery - the secret of the structure of snowflakes. According to physical laws, where strict order reigns, there is no place for chaos. And vice versa. And only at the birth of these creatures order and chaos somehow coexist together.
It is known that solid must be either in the form of a crystal (the atoms are ordered) or in an amorphous state (they form a random grid). Snowflakes, on the other hand, break all laws: they have a lattice, where oxygen atoms (and later water molecules) are lined up strictly in places, like soldiers in the ranks, and hydrogen atoms are random. But, joining the oxygen atoms, the hydrogen "tramps" form smooth faces, and... regular hexagonal prisms are born.
Young snowflakes are never pentagonal or heptagonal. Every time I never cease to admire the amazing mathematical precision with which nature creates its masterpieces. Amazing! Jewelers are just relaxing...
However, sooner or later, snowflakes begin to gain weight: new water molecules are attracted to each face and tubercle - irregularities appear. When traveling in the clouds, snowflakes grow rapidly: one thick beam appears from the edge, branches from the tubercles. If all six faces are in the same conditions, “twin” rays are formed.

Air waltz

When the snowflakes grow up and they, the numerous “children of the clouds”, become crowded in their father’s house, they, with “bold curiosity”, decide to try their luck - to go on an air journey to the earth, which can only conditionally be called a fall. K. Balmont colorfully described the flight of a snowflake: “Under the blowing wind it trembles, rises, on it, cherishing, it sways lightly.”
Air currents pick up light “fluffs”, carry them to the side, lift them up, circle in a whirlwind of dance - “snowflakes, like laughter, dance on the fly ...” And they are “light, winged, like night butterflies”, know yourself having fun and sing a song by A. Tvardovsky on the fly:

We are white snowflakes
We fly, we fly, we fly.
Paths and paths
We'll screw everything up.
Let's circle over the garden
On a cold winter day
And quietly sit next to each other
With people like us.
Dancing over the fields
We lead our round dance.
Where, we don't know
The wind will carry us.

And at first glance it may seem that “... They don't care about anything! - In light dresses with lace, with a bare shoulder ... ”But this is not entirely true!

Losing shape

Snowflakes fluttering in the air are in danger. Once in the warmer "edges", they can melt, turning into raindrops or grits. In addition, their enemy is evaporation, especially in the wind and at low humidity. The smaller the snowflake, the faster it melts: sharp tips are smoothed out, lacy bulges disappear. And the longer it falls, the more it rounds.
When there is no wind, snowflakes cling to each other into huge flakes - swirling “saucers”. And it happens that during severe frosts (below -30 ° C), ice crystals “freeze”, a strong wind mercilessly breaks their fragile rays, or they break and crumble, colliding with each other, and fall to the ground in the form of “diamond dust” - very fluffy snow made of thin ice needles.
Only a small part of the “princesses of the air ball” reaches the earth without incident - safe and sound. However, their girlfriends, who have changed beyond recognition, are also snowflakes, although they are asymmetrical. And the opinion that they must necessarily be hexagonal stars is erroneous. Those who have just been born - yes, but those “wise with experience”, who have known heat, wind and water, lose their former beauty. Their forms are no longer so elegant and regular, but still very diverse.

whole science

It is difficult to classify a phenomenon that has no repetition in nature. All snowflakes are different, and separating them is largely a matter of personal preference. For a long time scientists could not photograph a snowflake under a microscope.
For the first time this was done in 1885 by the American W. Bentley, nicknamed “Snowflake”. For 46 years, he has created a collection of more than 5 thousand unique images, proving that there is not a single pair of absolutely identical snowflakes. Their study turned into a science, and in 1951 the International Commission on Snow and Ice adopted a classification of ice crystals, including seven main types of snowflakes and three types of icy precipitation (fine snow grains, ice grains and hail).
However, it's time for snowflakes to introduce themselves - so many times we have mentioned their magic and originality.

Let's get acquainted!

I am a snowflake fluff, a beautiful and amazing creation of nature. Not without reason remarkable verses are devoted to me. Listen to how K. Balmont wrote about me: “Light-fluffy, white snowflake, how pure, how bold!” This is about me! But I'm not alone. We are very, very many.
The most beautiful are thin (only 0.1 mm thick) star-shaped crystals, or dendrites (I also belong to this group). Our tree-like, openwork, branching body (diameter 5 mm or more) consists of six symmetrical main branches and many branches - as you like.
Our closest relatives are the disc sisters. They are flat and thin, like us. However, they are inferior to us in beauty: a lot of ice ribs divide the blades of their body into sectors - also nothing, but there is no such grace as ours!
And let there be few of us, but my sisters and I are masterpieces. It is we - lamellar snowflakes - that attract the eye more than other types of snowflakes. And the most numerous of our relatives are columns, or columns. This is a form of crystals in the form of hexagons and pencils, with caps, pointed at the ends...
It happens that the columns, flying in a whirlwind of dance into a zone with a different temperature, change their “orientation” - they turn into plates. And they are already called columns (or columns) with tips.
Among the columnar crystals, individual “accelerate” specimens grow long and thin. They are called needles. Sometimes cavities remain inside them, and the ends split into branches.
Some of our “flat and columnar” relatives decide to live in “families” - three-dimensional structures. By the way, very interesting complex creations are obtained - spatial dendrites: crystals, growing together, retain their individuality - each branch is located in its own plane.
A lot of troubles fall to the share of “snowflakes-ballerinas”: in warmth or on strong wind they lose branches, break. Usually there are a lot of such “cripples” in wet snow. These are irregularly shaped crystals.

colorful snow

The fact that snow is not pure white, but slightly blue, has long been known. Make a hole in it about a meter. The light in the thickness of the snow near the edge of the hole will appear yellowish, deeper - yellowish-green, bluish-greenish, and finally bright blue. The reflection of the sky has nothing to do with it. And in cloudy weather, and when using a cardboard tube - nothing will change. Why does blueness occur?
The ice of snowflakes is transparent, and sunlight, reflected and scattered on their many faces, loses red and yellow rays, retaining only bluish-green, blue or bright blue - depending on the thickness of the crystal. But when there are a lot of snowflakes, the impression of a white mass is created.
In different areas - "their" snow, a special shape and color. In the arctic regions, you can see pink or red snow - this color it acquires due to algae living between the crystals. There are cases when blue, green, gray and even black snow fell (apparently due to soot and industrial atmospheric pollution).

He's getting old just like us.

But let's get back to fresh loose snow in the form of stars, needles, columns ... Myriads of snowflakes are not like grains of sand: like living beings, being together, they immediately begin to actively interact: they evaporate, their sharp corners are smoothed out. Excess steam goes into a solid (or liquid) state. Ice builds up in the center of the snowflakes. Small crystals disappear, large ones become larger, losing their uniqueness. Ice bridges appear. There is less and less air in the snow “house”, the snow is compacted, hardens, turning into compacted, then compacted and, finally, into firn - dense coarse-grained snow from compressed ice grains.
These processes are observed in any “long-playing” snow cover. They are accelerated by thaws, they are affected by winds. And if the snowflakes fell in the form of grains, forming already dense snow, then its “aging” accelerates ...
“Snow is swirling, snow is falling - snow! Snow! Snow!..” Fresh snow on a frosty day is always accompanied by a cheerful crunch underfoot. And it is nothing but the sound of breaking crystals. We cannot perceive the sound of one broken snowflake, but a myriad of crushed crystals create a very distinct creak.
Try to catch this fragile celestial beauty on a mitten and examine it properly. You will see for yourself that this is magic, a real miracle! And marvel at its magnificence!

Figures and facts:

• More than half of the world's population has never seen real snow.
• In 1 m3 of snow there are 350 million snowflakes, and throughout the Earth - 10 to the 24th degree. The weight of a snowflake is only about 1 mg, rarely - 2-3 mg. However, when combined, billions of almost weightless snowflakes can even affect the speed of the Earth's rotation. By the way, by the end of winter, the mass of snow cover on the planet reaches 13,500 billion tons.
• German meteorologists managed to calculate that several septillions (a number with 24 zeros) of snowflakes fall on Germany every year, among which there are not even two identical ones.
• The diameter of most snowflakes is about 5 mm. Although there are exceptions. On April 30, 1944, amazing snow fell in Moscow - palm-sized snowflakes resembling ostrich feathers. The officially registered “record holder” had a circumference of 12 cm.
• It turns out that white color gives the snow ... air (95 percent). Loose and fluffy snow is saturated with air bubbles, from the walls of which light is reflected. The presence of air also determines the very low density of snowflakes and snow and the slow speed of their fall (0.9 km/h).
• The Japanese scientist N. Ukichiro called snow "a letter from heaven, written in secret hieroglyphs." He was the first to create a classification of snowflakes. The only snowflake museum in the world on the island of Hokkaido is named after him.