Re: orbitals, flowers, quantum puzzlement;
Ken S. Tucker wrote:
In experience, a snow-flake hex type shape results from,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_geometry
the 104.5 degree molecule, (H2O), that's seems truthful.
What I can't figure out is why an octogonal shaped snow
flake could not form.
Could you explain why that 104.5 creates hexagons but
not octagons, I'm guessing it's all bonding and less to
do with the angle??
The angle 104.5 degree corresponds to the ground state of a
single water molecule. Interacting water molecules have complicated
multibody interactions, which are responsible for the manifold
metastable states (local minima of the potential energy surface)
that water in bulk can form, among others the various forms of
snow-flakes.
Maybe the work of Rahman and Stillinger in the 1970ies
has more details. (Find out from http://scholar.google.com)
Arnold Neumaier
.
