Billions of snowflakes fall every year but they are famously never alike – except in this tricky puzzle where two of the crystal-like formations match.
Dazzling beautiful when viewed under the microscope, snowflakes are one of Mother Nature’s most wonderous chilly constructions.
The infinite variety of formations in snowflakes is one of the mind-boggling examples of science in action and conditions must be just right for them to appear.
In the clouds temperatures have to be at least minus 10C for the water vapour trapped to turn into the substance that we know as snow falling on the crowd.
Like a vision of a wintry day, this puzzle shows an array of snowflakes but unlike the real world two of the white pointy patterns are actually identical.
In this image there are five rows of five set in a square, but only those with the keenest puzzle solving skills can spot the matching pair in under thirty seconds.
Strategies to employ might be running down each line in turn horizontally or vertically, or maybe you prefer to just dart your eyes across the square at random seeking the pattern.
You could count the points maybe, or identify different blocks that are filled in and which ones are not.
Scroll down to reveal the matching pair…
And there they are, in the middle of the lowest row of five horizontally and second from top in the furthest left line vertically, the matching snowflakes.
This conundrum was devised by online casino site Betway as an attempt to get people into the festive spirit.
In 1885, American photographer and scientist Wilson Bentley came up with an ingenious way to attach his camera to a miscroscope so he could take stills of a amazing snowflakes formations in greater detail than ever before.
Previous attempts had always been hampered by the flakes melting before a suitable image could be taken.
