It may seem a simple thing, simulating a snowflake by computer. Not as easy as it looks.

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have been doing research on the subject. The Why Files looked into it.

“The Why Files talked about the nitty-gritty of snowflakes with David Griffeath, professor of mathematics at University of Wisconsin-Madison, who worked on snowflake simulation with Janko Gravner, a mathematician at the University of California at Davis.

The Why Files: There’s a long history of studying snowflakes…
David Griffeath: We are trying to emulate nature, but there are questions remaining about how nature makes snowflakes, too. The question of snowflakes has been extremely intriguing to some in the high pantheon of science for almost 400 years, including Johannes Kepler, who first described the orbital motion of planets. They noticed that snowflakes had this very complex structure, but also a very elementary geometry and symmetry. What was causing that? Back then, the short answer was “God,” and that remains very popular to this day. Somehow the supreme maker, the intelligent designer, is taking time out to design these little guys…”

Full story in The Why Files.