"Perfect Stacking" geometries are very common in metals, because metal atoms like to get close to one another and don't care too much about the angles of interaction. Nonmetals like carbon and ice care a lot more about the angles of bonds between atoms, so perfect stacking is less common. This is one reason that metals tend to be denser than nonmetals.
Stealthiness2 t1_j16el9w wrote
Reply to Are carbon's unique traits related in any way to the "most efficient stacking" hexagon thing that leads to snowflakes and beehives? by uwu-nyaa
"Perfect Stacking" geometries are very common in metals, because metal atoms like to get close to one another and don't care too much about the angles of interaction. Nonmetals like carbon and ice care a lot more about the angles of bonds between atoms, so perfect stacking is less common. This is one reason that metals tend to be denser than nonmetals.