Snow
As it was snowing the other day, I was thinking about how random the formation of snow is. It made me wonder if science could predict snow if it wasn't already so obvious. I have a feeling that our current level knowledge, we couldn't.
Let's say we are given a scenario where we lived on a planet that never had the outdoor temperature drop below 0°C. Otherwise everything else was generally the same. We still had the ability to freeze water and are aware of the existence of ice.
With this situation, we find a planet far away that has an environment that is identical to Earth. Scientist's know that the world has temperatures that drop below freezing.
Predicting the existence of hail seems like it would be pretty straightforward. What I'm curious however, is would we be able to fully predict that snow would be created. If not, what other curiosities does the universe have that seem normal elsewhere, but we can't envision.
Let's say we are given a scenario where we lived on a planet that never had the outdoor temperature drop below 0°C. Otherwise everything else was generally the same. We still had the ability to freeze water and are aware of the existence of ice.
With this situation, we find a planet far away that has an environment that is identical to Earth. Scientist's know that the world has temperatures that drop below freezing.
Predicting the existence of hail seems like it would be pretty straightforward. What I'm curious however, is would we be able to fully predict that snow would be created. If not, what other curiosities does the universe have that seem normal elsewhere, but we can't envision.