Eddie Wu

One of the most famous facts about snow is that every individual snowflake, number one, it's unique.

It's like a fingerprint.

But number two, if you look at a snowflake underneath a microscope, it has this beautiful hexagonal symmetry to it.

And I've often wondered why.

And really the reason is that every individual water molecule has one oxygen and two hydrogens.

and they fit around it at a particular angle that when you fit them together and you make them very cold and they crystallize, you end up having this interlocking shape, a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, except each water molecule can fit onto exactly five others.

And you get a hexagon, which ends up being the center, the base, the nucleation site of that snowflake.

And so every snowflake begins with a hexagon and as other water molecules grab on in the air and join the party,

they form outwards in this symmetrical, beautiful shape.

So again, it's microscopic.

You almost wouldn't believe that it's there, but mathematics is the engine that makes our entire world run.

No, the pleasure is all mine, Mike.

Thank you so much for letting me have the opportunity to speak with your audience.