A mineral is an element that can be found in rock or externalized in a form such as a stone, carve, or put on your body. There are many ways to learn about minerals and how they arrange their atoms to create new properties.
Many of these learning methods are independent of what mineral you are looking for, it only matters that you find one that suits you. Some of the best ways to learn about minerals is to take a type and apply what they say about them to your personal health and well-being.
Crystalline shape
Crystalline shape is a relatively new way of describing the internal structure of minerals. Prior to this, most crystallographers used the term “ordered arrangement of atoms” to describe this new way of describing the internal arrangement of crystals.
How Does Crystalline Shape Work?
The term crystalline shape was coined by Dr. Diane Forster, a mineralogist at Harvard University. She created the term to highlight the different shapes that minerals can have.
Back in the 1980s, when crystals were still referred to as “grains”, Dr. Forster studied some quartz and noticed that it had a look that was very similar to pebbles or small rocks. She realized that these tiny rocks had definite structures in place that held them together, so she called them crystal shapes!
These newer terms are useful in helping us understand some of the more unique mineral structures.
Space-filling shape
When a crystal is shaped properly, it can create a spacesaving effect. This occurs when the crystal is cut in a specific way, and then there is space for additional material to enter the cut.
This action allows the crystal to conserve internal energy, which is what the shape contributes. By having a more defined shape, you are saving energy in two ways: You are keeping your crystals clean and protected, and you are providing yourself with some pride in how well you can care for your crystals.
By defining your crystal’s shape properly, you are also supporting its orderly internal arrangement of atoms. This refers to its calculated size and amount of energy it uses while retaining its shape.
Close-packing of spheres
This is one of the most interesting geometry properties of all crystals. It has been referred to as the miracle of packing.
Proper packing results in a close-knit, orderly arrangement of atoms inside the crystal. This is referred to as close-packing and refers to how well the atoms are arranged within the crystal.
An obvious way to achieve this is by using a larger sphere as opposed to a smaller one. With that being said, there are many reasons why using a larger sphere is not always beneficial.
For example, a smaller sphere may require more energy to hold in place while shaping the stone. A large enough sphere may also be hard for some people to control in terms of size and holding power.
Tetrahedrons
A mineral’s internal arrangement of atoms is referred to as its structure. There are a range of structures that an atom can have in a mineral. These include:
Simple – Only has one structure group or group of atoms. Examples: sodium and chlorine.
– Only has one structure group or group of atoms. Examples: sodium and chlorine. Simple-No additional atoms are added to the simple structure to create new structures. Examples: water and electricity.
In addition, there are certain structural groups that belong together because they affect how other structures inside a mineral affect it. These include: cations, anions, protonated and unprotonated groups, and cation-anion bonds.
Octahedrons
The octahedrons are a relatively new class of crystal. They are a special type of crystal that has eight Faces or sides to it!
These faces or sides form when two different elements combine to form a molecule. When this happens, the two molecules separate into two new crystals.
One of these crystals recombines into another compound and so on, forming an octahedron. This continues until all the atoms have recombined into a solid structure.
The exact way this happens is not known, but it does happen in nature. Because it is an unknown process that creates octahedrons, there has been research done on them.
Cube shape
The cube shape of an atom is one of the most studied and understood patterns in nature. It has been described as a place to put a little bit of energy, or a “resource” that can be used to create new atoms or arrange existing atoms into new structures.
Like other shapes in nature, the cube has no clear purpose, but it does have an ordered internal structure that determines its appearance and function. This internal structure is referred to as the “formalism” of an atom.
The informal structure of an atom is dependent on the element it is made of. For example, oxygen (O) contains two protons and two electrons, so it has a higher number of protons than carbon (C).
It also depends on what minerals an atom is in to determine whether it has a regular shape or not.
Formation process
As water goes through its life cycle, it changes shape and forms salt and fresh water formations. This is because water consists of both pure water molecules and other molecules that resemble them.
When a liquid forms, it must organize its atoms in order to organize its molecules in order to continue to exist. The process of solidification or freezing occurs so that new atoms can organize into new molecules.
This organization takes place through a process called crystallization, where the liquid superficially transforms into a solid. Once this happens, it must continue to crystallize until it vanishes, or appears as if there was no liquid involved.
This process is very random and depends on what others are putting in front of it. It is referred to as an external expression of a mineral’s orderly internal arrangement of atoms.
