The Science of Snowflakes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Montana

During a freak snowstorm, Fort Keogh, Montana, was pelted with extremely large snowflakes. Most snowflakes are measured in millimeters or micrometers. They are all but invisible to the naked eye. But that day they were the size of pancakes!

Answer: Wilson Bentley

Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley perfected the art of catching individual snowflakes on a piece of black velvet. He photographed over 5,000 snowflakes in his lifetime, most of which have been preserved. He was also the first scientist to measure snowflakes, raindrops, and hailstones.

He was one of the world's first cloud physicists and wrote the entry for the 14Th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica under the heading of "snow".

Answer: graupel

In certain weather conditions water droplets can condense on the outside of the snowflake causing a small round ball of snow to form. These little spheres of snow are called graupel or soft hail. They are different from hail in both size and hardness and usually fall in conditions of high moisture saturation in the air.

Answer: True

Most snowflakes are six sided figures. But, they can have as few as three and have been found to have as many as twelve sides. Because of the water molecules which form snowflakes, they are predominantly six sided, but occasionally variations are found in nature.

Answer: vertices

A hexagon is simply a polygon with six vertices and six edges. The vertices are the six points which make up the outside shape of the snowflake. Water always crystallizes in a hexagonal shape. While the vast majority of snowflakes will be hexagonal, as is common in nature, there are variations.

Answer: dendrites

These branches are properly called radiating dendrites. The numbers, size, and shape are all influenced by moisture saturation, air pollution, wind, and temperature. Variations are endless!

Answer: Nakaya's Classification Chart

Ukichiro Nakaya, was a famed Japanese physicist who came up with a classification chart in 1935 that sorted snowflakes into 41 different types. This chart is still used today. Nakaya is also credited with creating the world's first artificial snowflakes.

Answer: Johannes Kepler

This piece of scientific writing can be attributed to Johannes Kepler. It is the oldest known scientific paper on snowflakes. He knew the hexagonal shapes formed by snowflakes had to have a scientific reason behind them. It would be 300 years before an adequate explanation was provided by the scientific world.

Answer: True

One inch of rain is equivalent to about ten inches of snow. The difference comes from the air trapped in snow ice crystals and the density of the snow. This can be seen by simply filling a tall water glass with snow and watching it melt. The lighter and fluffier the snow the faster it melts.

Answer: False

Frozen rain is sleet, graupel, or more simply frozen drops of water. They are not crystalline in formation. Snowflakes are frozen molecules of water that have joined together to make prisms and dendrites.