"Joe Hunt" wrote:

It always amazes me how they say that no two snowflakes are exactly the
same. They obviously have verified this by checking every one that has
fallen from the sky, that would be ludicrous, however, I feel it must be
based on some mathematical theory. This has similarities to a calculation
I did at GCSE Biology which showed why no two people look alike, was to do
with genotypes and chromosomes IIRC.

Anyone have more of an idea than I seem to have !?

This might involve a calculation which I have often promised
myself that I ought to attempt, but never got round to. I am now
far too old and lazy to try. That is, how many snow-flakes are
there in a typical snowstorm. Work on the basis that the best
snowstorm we are likely to get in the UK would cover,
say, half the country with 30cm of snow, that would be
25mm x 125,000 sq km of water equivalent. And how much
water in a snowflake? No idea, but not much ... less than
a mm cubed, I guess.

Philip Eden