Diamond Snowflake Necklace .
the growth pattern must be similar
since all branches are built from the same H20 molecules locked
in the same hexagonal unit cell no matter where they are. Just like
diamonds are always octahedral, even though a diamond in a South
African mine does not "know" anything about its brother in a Siberian
mine, thousands of miles away. but both "know" about the diamond unit cell.
Does this mean that there is a finite number of patterns, or what?
In the snowflake atlas, certainly
One of my favorite stories on AW was when Josie lost the diamond
brooch or necklace Rachel had loaned her to go to the Snowflake Ball.
Sharlene actually did a calculation to figure out how many pies she'd
have to bake and sell in order to pay the Corys back. Long story
short, the piece of jewelry that was lost was fake. Rachel said to
Josie, "Well, my dear, you didn't think I'd let you wear the real..."
It came from a story by DeMaupassant, and Donna Swajeski did a
wonderful job with it.
However, crystal growth is certainly affected by
ambient temperature, humidity, wind speed.... All these factors
change as the snowflake falls from the sky, and of course the
snowflake falling into my garden will have a different "personal
history" from that of its brother falling into your garden.
(I think someone has pointed this out earlier in this thread.) But a given
change in the environmental conditions would affect the six branches
of the same snowflake (roughly) equally, since the snowflake is
a very small object (that's why my example with the 'golden trees'
was rather bad: these are much larger), and it tumbles quite randomly
as it falls so I think it is reasonable to
suppose that its environment is (quasi-)uniform. This could be the
source of the synchrony you mentioned.