Unique Snowflakes

[JohnPPotts]

It is often said that every snowflake is different, but the only definitive figures on this I've ever seen said that there were about 10 to the 100 possible configurations of ice crystals and each snowstorm had in the region of 10 to the 10 snowflakes in it (you'd also need some idea of how many snowstorms are taking place at any one time and how many there have been to calculate the odds). But my point is that apparently improbable events can sometimes turn out to be quite likely - eg, you only need 20 people in the room for it to be evens for 2 to share a birthday and it's fairly probable that each breath you take contains a molecule of Caesar's last breath (Fermi's Paradox) - particularly where you have a lot of objects to match. Now even if the figures above are way off (entirely possible, they're from memory), then surely this is another of those cases?

[answerbok]

there are no indentical snowflakes, due to the fractal, or [coastline] of the snow on each flake, but the ice crystal itself, probably your right and only about 100 structures. Also, the bithday thing, i think it's 24 in a group for there two be a likelihood of 2 having the same birthday; still weird odds, when there's 365 days, baffling, a mathemetician grins and says 'no, just mathling' :-)

[jenstar]

I would certainly say that both the numbers given in your question are way too high. In principle, I would reckon that yes, it's possible that you could have two snowflakes that are indistinguishable, but it would still be extremely rare.