system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why do snowflakes form such unique and symmetric shapes?
gpt
Because they are crystals. Crystalline substances follow geometric patterns because it minimizes the energy of the molecular configuration, a beautiful example of spontaneous order. In the case of water, the water molecules align according to hydrogen bonding, forming "hexagonal" shapes (in 3D space, though). The way these shapes lock is rather fixed, but they are flexible in their growth, giving raise to many possible shapes. Chaos theory does the rest.