1.
Nesosilicate
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Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of rock-forming minerals and they are classified based on the structure of their silicate groups, which contain different ratios of silicon and oxygen. Nesosilicates, or orthosilicates, have the orthosilicate ion, which constitute isolated 4− tetrahedra that are connected only by interstitial cations and these exist as 3-member 6− and 6-member 12− rings, where T stands for a tetrahedrally coordinated cation. Inosilicates, or chain silicates, have interlocking chains of silicate tetrahedra with either SiO3,1,3 ratio, for single chains or Si4O11,4,11 ratio, for double chains. Nickel–Strunz classification,09. D Pyroxene group Enstatite – orthoferrosilite series Enstatite – MgSiO3 Ferrosilite – FeSiO3 Pigeonite – Ca0.251, all phyllosilicate minerals are hydrated, with either water or hydroxyl groups attached. Serpentine subgroup Antigorite – Mg3Si2O54 Chrysotile – Mg3Si2O54 Lizardite – Mg3Si2O54 Clay minerals group Halloysite – Al2Si2O54 Kaolinite – Al2Si2O54 Illite – 24O10 Montmorillonite –0 and this group comprises nearly 75% of the crust of the Earth. Tectosilicates, with the exception of the group, are aluminosilicates. Nickel–Strunz classification,09. F and 09. G,04. A, an introduction to the rock-forming minerals. Wise, W. S. Zussman, J. Rock-forming minerals, P.982 pp. Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Danas Manual of Mineralogy. Mindat. org, Dana classification Webmineral, Danas New Silicate Classification Media related to Silicates at Wikimedia Commons
2.
Chemical formula
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These are limited to a single typographic line of symbols, which may include subscripts and superscripts. A chemical formula is not a name, and it contains no words. Although a chemical formula may imply certain simple chemical structures, it is not the same as a full chemical structural formula. Chemical formulas can fully specify the structure of only the simplest of molecules and chemical substances, the simplest types of chemical formulas are called empirical formulas, which use letters and numbers indicating the numerical proportions of atoms of each type. Molecular formulas indicate the numbers of each type of atom in a molecule. For example, the formula for glucose is CH2O, while its molecular formula is C6H12O6. This is possible if the relevant bonding is easy to show in one dimension, an example is the condensed molecular/chemical formula for ethanol, which is CH3-CH2-OH or CH3CH2OH. For reasons of structural complexity, there is no condensed chemical formula that specifies glucose, chemical formulas may be used in chemical equations to describe chemical reactions and other chemical transformations, such as the dissolving of ionic compounds into solution. A chemical formula identifies each constituent element by its chemical symbol, in empirical formulas, these proportions begin with a key element and then assign numbers of atoms of the other elements in the compound, as ratios to the key element. For molecular compounds, these numbers can all be expressed as whole numbers. For example, the formula of ethanol may be written C2H6O because the molecules of ethanol all contain two carbon atoms, six hydrogen atoms, and one oxygen atom. Some types of compounds, however, cannot be written with entirely whole-number empirical formulas. An example is boron carbide, whose formula of CBn is a variable non-whole number ratio with n ranging from over 4 to more than 6.5. When the chemical compound of the consists of simple molecules. These types of formulas are known as molecular formulas and condensed formulas. A molecular formula enumerates the number of atoms to reflect those in the molecule, so that the formula for glucose is C6H12O6 rather than the glucose empirical formula. However, except for very simple substances, molecular chemical formulas lack needed structural information, for simple molecules, a condensed formula is a type of chemical formula that may fully imply a correct structural formula. For example, ethanol may be represented by the chemical formula CH3CH2OH
3.
Crystal system
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In crystallography, the terms crystal system, crystal family and lattice system each refer to one of several classes of space groups, lattices, point groups or crystals. Informally, two crystals are in the crystal system if they have similar symmetries, though there are many exceptions to this. Space groups and crystals are divided into seven crystal systems according to their point groups, five of the crystal systems are essentially the same as five of the lattice systems, but the hexagonal and trigonal crystal systems differ from the hexagonal and rhombohedral lattice systems. The six crystal families are formed by combining the hexagonal and trigonal crystal systems into one hexagonal family, a lattice system is a class of lattices with the same set of lattice point groups, which are subgroups of the arithmetic crystal classes. The 14 Bravais lattices are grouped into seven lattice systems, triclinic, monoclinic, orthorhombic, tetragonal, rhombohedral, hexagonal, in a crystal system, a set of point groups and their corresponding space groups are assigned to a lattice system. Of the 32 point groups that exist in three dimensions, most are assigned to only one system, in which case both the crystal and lattice systems have the same name. However, five point groups are assigned to two systems, rhombohedral and hexagonal, because both exhibit threefold rotational symmetry. These point groups are assigned to the crystal system. In total there are seven crystal systems, triclinic, monoclinic, orthorhombic, tetragonal, trigonal, hexagonal, a crystal family is determined by lattices and point groups. It is formed by combining crystal systems which have space groups assigned to a lattice system. In three dimensions, the families and systems are identical, except the hexagonal and trigonal crystal systems. In total there are six families, triclinic, monoclinic, orthorhombic, tetragonal, hexagonal. Spaces with less than three dimensions have the number of crystal systems, crystal families and lattice systems. In one-dimensional space, there is one crystal system, in 2D space, there are four crystal systems, oblique, rectangular, square and hexagonal. The relation between three-dimensional crystal families, crystal systems and lattice systems is shown in the table, Note. To avoid confusion of terminology, the term trigonal lattice is not used, if the original structure and inverted structure are identical, then the structure is centrosymmetric. Still, even for non-centrosymmetric case, inverted structure in some cases can be rotated to align with the original structure and this is the case of non-centrosymmetric achiral structure. If the inverted structure cannot be rotated to align with the structure, then the structure is chiral
4.
Cubic crystal system
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In crystallography, the cubic crystal system is a crystal system where the unit cell is in the shape of a cube. This is one of the most common and simplest shapes found in crystals and minerals, there are three main varieties of these crystals, Primitive cubic Body-centered cubic, Face-centered cubic Each is subdivided into other variants listed below. Note that although the cell in these crystals is conventionally taken to be a cube. This is related to the fact that in most cubic crystal systems, a classic isometric crystal has square or pentagonal faces. The three Bravais lattices in the crystal system are, The primitive cubic system consists of one lattice point on each corner of the cube. Each atom at a point is then shared equally between eight adjacent cubes, and the unit cell therefore contains in total one atom. The body-centered cubic system has one point in the center of the unit cell in addition to the eight corner points. It has a net total of 2 lattice points per unit cell, Each sphere in a cF lattice has coordination number 12. The face-centered cubic system is related to the hexagonal close packed system. The plane of a cubic system is a hexagonal grid. Attempting to create a C-centered cubic crystal system would result in a simple tetragonal Bravais lattice, there are a total 36 cubic space groups. Other terms for hexoctahedral are, normal class, holohedral, ditesseral central class, a simple cubic unit cell has a single cubic void in the center. Additionally, there are 24 tetrahedral voids located in a square spacing around each octahedral void and these tetrahedral voids are not local maxima and are not technically voids, but they do occasionally appear in multi-atom unit cells. A face-centered cubic unit cell has eight tetrahedral voids located midway between each corner and the center of the cell, for a total of eight net tetrahedral voids. One important characteristic of a structure is its atomic packing factor. This is calculated by assuming all the atoms are identical spheres. The atomic packing factor is the proportion of space filled by these spheres, assuming one atom per lattice point, in a primitive cubic lattice with cube side length a, the sphere radius would be a⁄2 and the atomic packing factor turns out to be about 0.524. Similarly, in a bcc lattice, the atomic packing factor is 0.680, as a rule, since atoms in a solid attract each other, the more tightly packed arrangements of atoms tend to be more common
5.
Crystallographic point group
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For a periodic crystal, the group must also be consistent with maintenance of the three-dimensional translational symmetry that defines crystallinity. The macroscopic properties of a crystal would look exactly the same before, in the classification of crystals, each point group is also known as a crystal class. There are infinitely many three-dimensional point groups, however, the crystallographic restriction of the infinite families of general point groups results in there being only 32 crystallographic point groups. These 32 point groups are one-and-the same as the 32 types of morphological crystalline symmetries derived in 1830 by Johann Friedrich Christian Hessel from a consideration of observed crystal forms, the point groups are denoted by their component symmetries. There are a few standard notations used by crystallographers, mineralogists, for the correspondence of the two systems below, see crystal system. In Schoenflies notation, point groups are denoted by a symbol with a subscript. The symbols used in crystallography mean the following, Cn indicates that the group has a rotation axis. Cnh is Cn with the addition of a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation. Cnv is Cn with the addition of n mirror planes parallel to the axis of rotation, s2n denotes a group that contains only a 2n-fold rotation-reflection axis. Dn indicates that the group has a rotation axis plus n twofold axes perpendicular to that axis. Dnh has, in addition, a plane perpendicular to the n-fold axis. Dnd has, in addition to the elements of Dn, mirror planes parallel to the n-fold axis, the letter T indicates that the group has the symmetry of a tetrahedron. Td includes improper rotation operations, T excludes improper rotation operations, the letter O indicates that the group has the symmetry of an octahedron, with or without improper operations. Due to the crystallographic restriction theorem, n =1,2,3,4, d4d and D6d are actually forbidden because they contain improper rotations with n=8 and 12 respectively. The 27 point groups in the table plus T, Td, Th, O, an abbreviated form of the Hermann–Mauguin notation commonly used for space groups also serves to describe crystallographic point groups. Group names are Molecular symmetry Point group Space group Point groups in three dimensions Crystal system Point-group symbols in International Tables for Crystallography,12.1, pp. 818-820 Names and symbols of the 32 crystal classes in International Tables for Crystallography. 10.1, p.794 Pictorial overview of the 32 groups Point Groups - Flow Chart Inorganic Chemistry Group Theory Practice Problems
6.
Space group
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In mathematics, physics and chemistry, a space group is the symmetry group of a configuration in space, usually in three dimensions. In three dimensions, there are 219 distinct types, or 230 if chiral copies are considered distinct, Space groups are also studied in dimensions other than 3 where they are sometimes called Bieberbach groups, and are discrete cocompact groups of isometries of an oriented Euclidean space. In crystallography, space groups are called the crystallographic or Fedorov groups. A definitive source regarding 3-dimensional space groups is the International Tables for Crystallography, in 1879 Leonhard Sohncke listed the 65 space groups whose elements preserve the orientation. More accurately, he listed 66 groups, but Fedorov and Schönflies both noticed that two of them were really the same, the space groups in 3 dimensions were first enumerated by Fedorov, and shortly afterwards were independently enumerated by Schönflies. The correct list of 230 space groups was found by 1892 during correspondence between Fedorov and Schönflies, burckhardt describes the history of the discovery of the space groups in detail. The space groups in three dimensions are made from combinations of the 32 crystallographic point groups with the 14 Bravais lattices, the combination of all these symmetry operations results in a total of 230 different space groups describing all possible crystal symmetries. The elements of the space group fixing a point of space are rotations, reflections, the identity element, the translations form a normal abelian subgroup of rank 3, called the Bravais lattice. There are 14 possible types of Bravais lattice, the quotient of the space group by the Bravais lattice is a finite group which is one of the 32 possible point groups. Translation is defined as the moves from one point to another point. A glide plane is a reflection in a plane, followed by a parallel with that plane. This is noted by a, b or c, depending on which axis the glide is along. There is also the n glide, which is a glide along the half of a diagonal of a face, and the d glide, the latter is called the diamond glide plane as it features in the diamond structure. In 17 space groups, due to the centering of the cell, the glides occur in two directions simultaneously, i. e. the same glide plane can be called b or c, a or b. For example, group Abm2 could be also called Acm2, group Ccca could be called Cccb, in 1992, it was suggested to use symbol e for such planes. The symbols for five groups have been modified, A screw axis is a rotation about an axis. These are noted by a number, n, to describe the degree of rotation, the degree of translation is then added as a subscript showing how far along the axis the translation is, as a portion of the parallel lattice vector. So,21 is a rotation followed by a translation of 1/2 of the lattice vector
7.
Crystal habit
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In mineralogy, crystal habit is the characteristic external shape of an individual crystal or crystal group. A single crystals habit is a description of its shape and its crystallographic forms. Recognizing the habit may help in identifying a mineral, when the faces are well-developed due to uncrowded growth a crystal is called euhedral, one with partially developed faces is subhedral, and one with undeveloped crystal faces is called anhedral. The long axis of a quartz crystal typically has a six-sided prismatic habit with parallel opposite faces. Aggregates can be formed of individual crystals with euhedral to anhedral grains, the arrangement of crystals within the aggregate can be characteristic of certain minerals. For example, minerals used for asbestos insulation often grow in a fibrous habit, the terms used by mineralogists to report crystal habits describe the typical appearance of an ideal mineral. Recognizing the habit can aid in identification as some habits are characteristic, most minerals, however, do not display ideal habits due to conditions during crystallization. Minerals belonging to the crystal system do not necessarily exhibit the same habit. Some habits of a mineral are unique to its variety and locality, For example, while most sapphires form elongate barrel-shaped crystals, ordinarily, the latter habit is seen only in ruby. Sapphire and ruby are both varieties of the mineral, corundum. Some minerals may replace other existing minerals while preserving the originals habit, a classic example is tigers eye quartz, crocidolite asbestos replaced by silica. While quartz typically forms prismatic crystals, in tigers eye the original fibrous habit of crocidolite is preserved, the names of crystal habits are derived from, Predominant crystal faces. Abnormal grain growth Grain growth Crystallization
8.
Rhombic dodecahedron
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In geometry, the rhombic dodecahedron is a convex polyhedron with 12 congruent rhombic faces. It has 24 edges, and 14 vertices of two types and it is a Catalan solid, and the dual polyhedron of the cuboctahedron. The rhombic dodecahedron is a zonohedron and its polyhedral dual is the cuboctahedron. The long diagonal of each face is exactly √2 times the length of the diagonal, so that the acute angles on each face measure arccos. Being the dual of an Archimedean polyhedron, the rhombic dodecahedron is face-transitive, meaning the symmetry group of the solid acts transitively on the set of faces. In elementary terms, this means that for any two faces A and B there is a rotation or reflection of the solid that leaves it occupying the region of space while moving face A to face B. The rhombic dodecahedron is one of the nine edge-transitive convex polyhedra, the others being the five Platonic solids, the cuboctahedron, the icosidodecahedron, the rhombic dodecahedron can be used to tessellate three-dimensional space. It can be stacked to fill a space much like hexagons fill a plane and this polyhedron in a space-filling tessellation can be seen as the Voronoi tessellation of the face-centered cubic lattice. It is the Brillouin zone of body centered cubic crystals, some minerals such as garnet form a rhombic dodecahedral crystal habit. Honey bees use the geometry of rhombic dodecahedra to form honeycombs from a tessellation of cells each of which is a hexagonal prism capped with half a rhombic dodecahedron, the rhombic dodecahedron also appears in the unit cells of diamond and diamondoids. In these cases, four vertices are absent, but the chemical bonds lie on the remaining edges, the graph of the rhombic dodecahedron is nonhamiltonian. The last two correspond to the B2 and A2 Coxeter planes, the rhombic dodecahedron is a parallelohedron, a space-filling polyhedron. Other symmetry constructions of the dodecahedron are also space-filling. For example, with 4 square faces, and 60-degree rhombic faces and it be seen as a cuboctahedron with square pyramids augmented on the top and bottom. In 1960 Stanko Bilinski discovered a second rhombic dodecahedron with 12 congruent rhombus faces and it has the same topology but different geometry. The rhombic faces in this form have the golden ratio, another topologically equivalent variation, sometimes called a trapezoidal dodecahedron, is isohedral with tetrahedral symmetry order 24, distorting rhombic faces into kites. It has 8 vertices adjusted in or out in sets of 4. Variations can be parametrized by, where b is determined from a for planar faces and this polyhedron is a part of a sequence of rhombic polyhedra and tilings with Coxeter group symmetry
9.
Cleavage (crystal)
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Cleavage, in mineralogy, is the tendency of crystalline materials to split along definite crystallographic structural planes. Cleavage forms parallel to planes, Basal or pinacoidal cleavage occurs when there is only one cleavage plane. Mica also has basal cleavage, this is why mica can be peeled into thin sheets, cubic cleavage occurs on when there are three cleavage planes intersecting at 90 degrees. Halite has cubic cleavage, and therefore, when halite crystals are broken, octahedral cleavage occurs when there are four cleavage planes in a crystal. Octahedral cleavage is common for semiconductors, rhombohedral cleavage occurs when there are three cleavage planes intersecting at angles that are not 90 degrees. Prismatic cleavage occurs when there are two planes in a crystal. Dodecahedral cleavage occurs when there are six cleavage planes in a crystal, crystal parting occurs when minerals break along planes of structural weakness due to external stress or along twin composition planes. Parting breaks are very similar in appearance to cleavage, but only due to stress. Examples include magnetite which shows octahedral parting, the parting of corundum. Cleavage is a property traditionally used in mineral identification, both in hand specimen and microscopic examination of rock and mineral studies. As an example, the angles between the cleavage planes for the pyroxenes and the amphiboles are diagnostic. Crystal cleavage is of importance in the electronics industry and in the cutting of gemstones. Precious stones are generally cleaved by impact, as in diamond cutting, synthetic single crystals of semiconductor materials are generally sold as thin wafers which are much easier to cleave. Elemental semiconductors are diamond cubic, a group for which octahedral cleavage is observed. This means that some orientations of wafer allow near-perfect rectangles to be cleaved, most other commercial semiconductors can be made in the related zinc blende structure, with similar cleavage planes. Cleavage Mineral galleries, Mineral properties – Cleavage
10.
Fracture (mineralogy)
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In the field of mineralogy, fracture is the texture and shape of a rocks surface formed when a mineral is fractured. Minerals often have a highly distinctive fracture, making it a feature used in their identification. Fracture differs from cleavage in that the latter involves clean splitting along the planes of the minerals crystal structure. All minerals exhibit fracture, but when very strong cleavage is present, conchoidal fracture breakage that resembles the concentric ripples of a mussel shell. It often occurs in amorphous or fine-grained minerals such as flint, opal or obsidian, subconchoidal fracture is similar to conchoidal fracture, but with less significant curvature. Earthy fracture is reminiscent of freshly broken soil and it is frequently seen in relatively soft, loosely bound minerals, such as limonite, kaolinite and aluminite. Hackly fracture is jagged, sharp and not even and it occurs when metals are torn, and so is often encountered in native metals such as copper and silver. Splintery fracture comprises sharp elongated points and it is particularly seen in fibrous minerals such as chrysotile, but may also occur in non-fibrous minerals such as kyanite. Uneven fracture is a surface or one with random irregularities. It occurs in a range of minerals including arsenopyrite, pyrite and magnetite. Rudolf Duda and Lubos Rejl, Minerals of the World http, //www. galleries. com/minerals/property/fracture. htm
11.
Mohs scale of mineral hardness
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The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is a qualitative ordinal scale characterizing scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of harder material to scratch softer material. Created in 1812 by German geologist and mineralogist Friedrich Mohs, it is one of several definitions of hardness in materials science, while greatly facilitating the identification of minerals in the field, the Mohs scale does not show how well hard materials perform in an industrial setting. Despite its lack of precision, the Mohs scale is highly relevant for field geologists, the Mohs scale hardness of minerals can be commonly found in reference sheets. Reference materials may be expected to have a uniform Mohs hardness, the Mohs scale of mineral hardness is based on the ability of one natural sample of mineral to scratch another mineral visibly. The samples of matter used by Mohs are all different minerals, Minerals are pure substances found in nature. Rocks are made up of one or more minerals, as the hardest known naturally occurring substance when the scale was designed, diamonds are at the top of the scale. The hardness of a material is measured against the scale by finding the hardest material that the material can scratch. For example, if material is scratched by apatite but not by fluorite. Scratching a material for the purposes of the Mohs scale means creating non-elastic dislocations visible to the naked eye, frequently, materials that are lower on the Mohs scale can create microscopic, non-elastic dislocations on materials that have a higher Mohs number. The Mohs scale is an ordinal scale. For example, corundum is twice as hard as topaz, the table below shows the comparison with the absolute hardness measured by a sclerometer, with pictorial examples. On the Mohs scale, a streak plate has a hardness of 7.0, using these ordinary materials of known hardness can be a simple way to approximate the position of a mineral on the scale. The table below incorporates additional substances that may fall between levels, Comparison between Hardness and Hardness, Mohs hardness of elements is taken from G. V, samsonov in Handbook of the physicochemical properties of the elements, IFI-Plenum, New York, USA,1968. The Hardness of Minerals and Rocks
12.
Lustre (mineralogy)
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Lustre or luster is the way light interacts with the surface of a crystal, rock, or mineral. The word traces its origins back to the latin lux, meaning light, a range of terms are used to describe lustre, such as earthy, metallic, greasy, and silky. Similarly, the term refers to a glassy lustre. A list of terms is given below. Lustre varies over a continuum, and so there are no rigid boundaries between the different types of lustre. The terms are frequently combined to describe types of lustre. Some minerals exhibit unusual optical phenomena, such as asterism or chatoyancy, a list of such phenomena is given below. Adamantine minerals possess a superlative lustre, which is most notably seen in diamond, such minerals are transparent or translucent, and have a high refractive index. Minerals with an adamantine lustre are uncommon, with examples being cerussite. Minerals with a degree of lustre are referred to as subadamantine, with some examples being garnet. Dull minerals exhibit little to no lustre, due to coarse granulations which scatter light in all directions, a distinction is sometimes drawn between dull minerals and earthy minerals, with the latter being coarser, and having even less lustre. Greasy minerals resemble fat or grease, a greasy lustre often occurs in minerals containing a great abundance of microscopic inclusions, with examples including opal and cordierite. Many minerals with a greasy lustre also feel greasy to the touch, metallic minerals have the lustre of polished metal, and with ideal surfaces will work as a reflective surface. Examples include galena, pyrite and magnetite, pearly minerals consist of thin transparent co-planar sheets. Light reflecting from these layers give them a lustre reminiscent of pearls, such minerals possess perfect cleavage, with examples including muscovite and stilbite. Resinous minerals have the appearance of resin, chewing gum or plastic, a principal example is amber, which is a form of fossilized resin. Silky minerals have an arrangement of extremely fine fibres, giving them a lustre reminiscent of silk. Examples include asbestos, ulexite and the satin spar variety of gypsum, a fibrous lustre is similar, but has a coarser texture
13.
Streak (mineralogy)
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The streak of a mineral is the color of the powder produced when it is dragged across an un-weathered surface. If no streak seems to be made, the streak is said to be white or colorless. Streak is particularly important as a diagnostic for opaque and colored materials and it is less useful for silicate minerals, most of which have a white streak or are too hard to powder easily. The apparent color of a mineral can vary widely because of impurities or a disturbed macroscopic crystal structure. Small amounts of an impurity that strongly absorbs a particular wavelength can radically change the wavelengths of light that are reflected by the specimen, and thus change the apparent color. However, when the specimen is dragged to produce a streak, it is broken into randomly oriented microscopic crystals, the surface across which the mineral is dragged is called a streak plate, and is generally made of unglazed porcelain tile. In the absence of a plate, the unglazed underside of a porcelain bowl or vase or the back of a glazed tile will work. Sometimes a streak is more easily or accurately described by comparing it with the streak made by another streak plate. Because the trail left behind results from the mineral being crushed into powder, in case of harder minerals, the color of the powder can be determined by filing or crushing with a hammer a small sample, which is then usually rubbed on a streak plate. Most minerals that are harder have a white streak. Some minerals leave a similar to their natural color, such as cinnabar. Other minerals leave surprising colors, such as fluorite, which always has a streak, although it can appear in purple, blue, yellow. Hematite, which is black in appearance, leaves a red streak which accounts for its name, galena, which can be similar in appearance to hematite, is easily distinguished by its gray streak. Hamilton, W. R. Cambridge Guide to Minerals, Rocks, the Encyclopedia of Gemstones and Minerals. New York, Facts on File. p.251, physical Characteristics of Minerals, at Introduction to Mineralogy by Andrea Bangert What is Streak
14.
Specific gravity
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This page is about the measurement using water as a reference. For a general use of gravity, see relative density. See intensive property for the property implied by specific, Apparent specific gravity is the ratio of the weight of a volume of the substance to the weight of an equal volume of the reference substance. The reference substance is always water at its densest for liquids. Nonetheless, the temperature and pressure must be specified for both the sample and the reference, pressure is nearly always 1 atm. Temperatures for both sample and reference vary from industry to industry, in British beer brewing, the practice for specific gravity as specified above is to multiply it by 1000. Being a ratio of densities, specific gravity is a dimensionless quantity, Specific gravity varies with temperature and pressure, reference and sample must be compared at the same temperature and pressure or be corrected to a standard reference temperature and pressure. Substances with a gravity of 1 are neutrally buoyant in water. Those with SG greater than 1 are denser than water and will, disregarding surface tension effects and those with an SG less than 1 are less dense than water and will float on it. In scientific work, the relationship of mass to volume is expressed directly in terms of the density of the substance under study. It is in industry where specific gravity finds wide application, often for historical reasons. True specific gravity can be expressed mathematically as, S G true = ρ sample ρ H2 O where ρ sample is the density of the sample, the density of water varies with temperature and pressure as does the density of the sample. So it is necessary to specify the temperatures and pressures at which the densities or weights were determined and it is nearly always the case that measurements are made at 1 nominal atmosphere. For true specific gravity calculations, air pressure must be considered, temperatures are specified by the notation with T s representing the temperature at which the samples density was determined and T r the temperature at which the reference density is specified. For example, SG would be understood to mean that the density of the sample was determined at 20°C and of the water at 4°C. Taking into account different sample and reference temperatures, we note that, while S G H2 O =1.000000, it is also the case that S G H2 O =0.998203 /0.999840 =0.998363. Here, temperature is being specified using the current ITS-90 scale, on the previous IPTS-68 scale, the densities at 20 °C and 4 °C are 0.9982071 and 0.9999720 respectively, resulting in an SG value for water of 0.9982343. For example, in the industry, the Plato table lists sucrose concentration by weight against true SG
15.
Refractive index
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In optics, the refractive index or index of refraction n of a material is a dimensionless number that describes how light propagates through that medium. It is defined as n = c v, where c is the speed of light in vacuum, for example, the refractive index of water is 1.333, meaning that light travels 1.333 times faster in a vacuum than it does in water. The refractive index determines how light is bent, or refracted. The refractive indices also determine the amount of light that is reflected when reaching the interface, as well as the angle for total internal reflection. This implies that vacuum has a index of 1. The refractive index varies with the wavelength of light and this is called dispersion and causes the splitting of white light into its constituent colors in prisms and rainbows, and chromatic aberration in lenses. Light propagation in absorbing materials can be described using a refractive index. The imaginary part then handles the attenuation, while the real part accounts for refraction, the concept of refractive index is widely used within the full electromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays to radio waves. It can also be used with wave phenomena such as sound, in this case the speed of sound is used instead of that of light and a reference medium other than vacuum must be chosen. Thomas Young was presumably the person who first used, and invented, at the same time he changed this value of refractive power into a single number, instead of the traditional ratio of two numbers. The ratio had the disadvantage of different appearances, newton, who called it the proportion of the sines of incidence and refraction, wrote it as a ratio of two numbers, like 529 to 396. Hauksbee, who called it the ratio of refraction, wrote it as a ratio with a fixed numerator, hutton wrote it as a ratio with a fixed denominator, like 1.3358 to 1. Young did not use a symbol for the index of refraction, in the next years, others started using different symbols, n, m, and µ. For visible light most transparent media have refractive indices between 1 and 2, a few examples are given in the adjacent table. These values are measured at the yellow doublet D-line of sodium, with a wavelength of 589 nanometers, gases at atmospheric pressure have refractive indices close to 1 because of their low density. Almost all solids and liquids have refractive indices above 1.3, aerogel is a very low density solid that can be produced with refractive index in the range from 1.002 to 1.265. Moissanite lies at the end of the range with a refractive index as high as 2.65. Most plastics have refractive indices in the range from 1.3 to 1.7, for infrared light refractive indices can be considerably higher
16.
Birefringence
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Birefringence is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are said to be birefringent, the birefringence is often quantified as the maximum difference between refractive indices exhibited by the material. Crystals with non-cubic crystal structures are often birefringent, as are plastics under mechanical stress and this effect was first described by the Danish scientist Rasmus Bartholin in 1669, who observed it in calcite, a crystal having one of the strongest birefringences. A mathematical description of wave propagation in a birefringent medium is presented below, following is a qualitative explanation of the phenomenon. Thus rotating the material around this axis does not change its optical behavior and this special direction is known as the optic axis of the material. Light whose polarization is perpendicular to the axis is governed by a refractive index no. Light whose polarization is in the direction of the optic axis sees an optical index ne, for any ray direction there is a linear polarization direction perpendicular to the optic axis, and this is called an ordinary ray. The magnitude of the difference is quantified by the birefringence, Δ n = n e − n o, the propagation of the ordinary ray is simply described by no as if there were no birefringence involved. However the extraordinary ray, as its name suggests, propagates unlike any wave in an optical material. Its refraction at a surface can be using the effective refractive index. However it is in fact an inhomogeneous wave whose power flow is not exactly in the direction of the wave vector and this causes an additional shift in that beam, even when launched at normal incidence, as is popularly observed using a crystal of calcite as photographed above. Rotating the calcite crystal will cause one of the two images, that of the ray, to rotate slightly around that of the ordinary ray. When the light propagates either along or orthogonal to the optic axis, in the first case, both polarizations see the same effective refractive index, so there is no extraordinary ray. In the second case the extraordinary ray propagates at a different phase velocity but is not an inhomogeneous wave, for instance, a quarter-wave plate is commonly used to create circular polarization from a linearly polarized source. The case of so-called biaxial crystals is substantially more complex and these are characterized by three refractive indices corresponding to three principal axes of the crystal. For most ray directions, both polarizations would be classified as extraordinary rays but with different effective refractive indices, being extraordinary waves, however, the direction of power flow is not identical to the direction of the wave vector in either case. The two refractive indices can be determined using the index ellipsoids for given directions of the polarization, note that for biaxial crystals the index ellipsoid will not be an ellipsoid of revolution but is described by three unequal principle refractive indices nα, nβ and nγ. Thus there is no axis around which a rotation leaves the optical properties invariant, for this reason, birefringent materials with three distinct refractive indices are called biaxial
17.
Pleochroism
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Pleochroism is an optical phenomenon in which a substance appears to be different colors when observed at different angles, especially with polarized light. Anisotropic crystals will have properties that vary with the direction of light. The polarization of light determines the direction of the electric field and these kinds of crystals have one or two optical axes. If absorption of light varies with the relative to the optical axis in a crystal then pleochroism results. Anisotropic crystals have double refraction of light where light of different polarizations is bent different amounts by the crystal, the components of a divided light beam follow different paths within the mineral and travel at different speeds. When the mineral is observed at some angle, light following some combination of paths and polarizations will be present, at another angle, the light passing through the crystal will be composed of another combination of light paths and polarizations, each with their own color. The light passing through the mineral will therefore have different colors when it is viewed from different angles, tetragonal, trigonal and hexagonal minerals can only show two colors and are called dichroic. Orthorhombic, monoclinic and triclinic crystals can show three and are trichroic, for example, hypersthene, with two optical axes, can have red, yellow or blue appearance when oriented in three different ways in three-dimensional space. Tourmaline is notable for exhibiting strong pleochroism, gems are sometimes cut and set either to display pleochroism or to hide it, depending on the colors and their attractiveness. The pleochroic colours are at their maximum when light is polarized parallel with a crystallographic axis, the axes are designated X, Y and Z. These axes can be determined from the appearance of a crystal in an interference pattern. Where there are two axes, the acute bisection of the axes gives Z for positive minerals and X for negative minerals. Perpendicular to these is the Y axis, the colour is measured with the polarization parallel to each direction. An absorption formula records the amount of parallel to each axis in the form of X < Y < Z with the left most having the least absorption. Minerals that are very similar often have very different pleochroic color schemes. In such cases, a section of the mineral is used and examined under polarized transmitted light with a petrographic microscope. Another device using this property to identify minerals is the dichroscope
18.
Ultraviolet
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Ultraviolet is an electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength from 10 nm to 400 nm, shorter than that of visible light but longer than X-rays. UV radiation constitutes about 10% of the light output of the Sun. It is also produced by electric arcs and specialized lights, such as lamps, tanning lamps. Consequently, the effects of UV are greater than simple heating effects. Suntan, freckling and sunburn are familiar effects of over-exposure, along with risk of skin cancer. Living things on dry land would be damaged by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun if most of it were not filtered out by the Earths atmosphere. More-energetic, shorter-wavelength extreme UV below 121 nm ionizes air so strongly that it is absorbed before it reaches the ground, Ultraviolet is also responsible for the formation of bone-strengthening vitamin D in most land vertebrates, including humans. The UV spectrum thus has both beneficial and harmful to human health. Ultraviolet rays are invisible to most humans, the lens in a human eye ordinarily filters out UVB frequencies or higher, and humans lack color receptor adaptations for ultraviolet rays. Under some conditions, children and young adults can see ultraviolet down to wavelengths of about 310 nm, near-UV radiation is visible to some insects, mammals, and birds. Small birds have a fourth color receptor for ultraviolet rays, this gives birds true UV vision, reindeer use near-UV radiation to see polar bears, who are poorly visible in regular light because they blend in with the snow. UV also allows mammals to see urine trails, which is helpful for animals to find food in the wild. The males and females of some species look identical to the human eye. Ultraviolet means beyond violet, violet being the color of the highest frequencies of visible light, Ultraviolet has a higher frequency than violet light. He called them oxidizing rays to emphasize chemical reactivity and to them from heat rays. The terms chemical and heat rays were eventually dropped in favour of ultraviolet and infrared radiation, in 1878 the effect of short-wavelength light on sterilizing bacteria was discovered. By 1903 it was known the most effective wavelengths were around 250 nm, in 1960, the effect of ultraviolet radiation on DNA was established. The discovery of the ultraviolet radiation below 200 nm, named vacuum ultraviolet because it is absorbed by air, was made in 1893 by the German physicist Victor Schumann
19.
Fluorescence
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Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence, in most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore lower energy, than the absorbed radiation. Fluorescent materials cease to glow immediately when the radiation source stops, unlike phosphorescence, Fluorescence also occurs frequently in nature in some minerals and in various biological states in many branches of the animal kingdom. An early observation of fluorescence was described in 1560 by Bernardino de Sahagún and it was derived from the wood of two tree species, Pterocarpus indicus and Eysenhardtia polystachya. The chemical compound responsible for this fluorescence is matlaline, which is the product of one of the flavonoids found in this wood. The name was derived from the fluorite, some examples of which contain traces of divalent europium. In a key experiment he used a prism to isolate ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, the specific frequencies of exciting and emitted light are dependent on the particular system. S0 is called the state of the fluorophore, and S1 is its first excited singlet state. A molecule in S1 can relax by various competing pathways and it can undergo non-radiative relaxation in which the excitation energy is dissipated as heat to the solvent. Excited organic molecules can also relax via conversion to a triplet state, relaxation from S1 can also occur through interaction with a second molecule through fluorescence quenching. Molecular oxygen is an extremely efficient quencher of fluorescence just because of its unusual triplet ground state, in most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore lower energy, than the absorbed radiation, this phenomenon is known as the Stokes shift. The emitted radiation may also be of the wavelength as the absorbed radiation. Molecules that are excited through light absorption or via a different process can transfer energy to a second sensitized molecule, the fluorescence quantum yield gives the efficiency of the fluorescence process. It is defined as the ratio of the number of photons emitted to the number of photons absorbed, Φ = Number of photons emitted Number of photons absorbed The maximum fluorescence quantum yield is 1.0, each photon absorbed results in a photon emitted. Compounds with quantum yields of 0.10 are still considered quite fluorescent, thus, if the rate of any pathway changes, both the excited state lifetime and the fluorescence quantum yield will be affected. Fluorescence quantum yields are measured by comparison to a standard, the quinine salt quinine sulfate in a sulfuric acid solution is a common fluorescence standard. The fluorescence lifetime refers to the time the molecule stays in its excited state before emitting a photon. This is an instance of exponential decay, various radiative and non-radiative processes can de-populate the excited state
20.
Silicate mineral
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Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of rock-forming minerals and they are classified based on the structure of their silicate groups, which contain different ratios of silicon and oxygen. Nesosilicates, or orthosilicates, have the orthosilicate ion, which constitute isolated 4− tetrahedra that are connected only by interstitial cations and these exist as 3-member 6− and 6-member 12− rings, where T stands for a tetrahedrally coordinated cation. Inosilicates, or chain silicates, have interlocking chains of silicate tetrahedra with either SiO3,1,3 ratio, for single chains or Si4O11,4,11 ratio, for double chains. Nickel–Strunz classification,09. D Pyroxene group Enstatite – orthoferrosilite series Enstatite – MgSiO3 Ferrosilite – FeSiO3 Pigeonite – Ca0.251, all phyllosilicate minerals are hydrated, with either water or hydroxyl groups attached. Serpentine subgroup Antigorite – Mg3Si2O54 Chrysotile – Mg3Si2O54 Lizardite – Mg3Si2O54 Clay minerals group Halloysite – Al2Si2O54 Kaolinite – Al2Si2O54 Illite – 24O10 Montmorillonite –0 and this group comprises nearly 75% of the crust of the Earth. Tectosilicates, with the exception of the group, are aluminosilicates. Nickel–Strunz classification,09. F and 09. G,04. A, an introduction to the rock-forming minerals. Wise, W. S. Zussman, J. Rock-forming minerals, P.982 pp. Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Danas Manual of Mineralogy. Mindat. org, Dana classification Webmineral, Danas New Silicate Classification Media related to Silicates at Wikimedia Commons
21.
Bronze Age
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The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age generally followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition, although the Iron Age generally followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic. Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing, according to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems. The overall period is characterized by use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques, tin must be mined and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of use of metals. The dating of the foil has been disputed, the Bronze Age in the ancient Near East began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and mathematics, the usual tripartite division into an Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age is not used. Instead, a division based on art-historical and historical characteristics is more common. The cities of the Ancient Near East housed several tens of thousands of people, ur in the Middle Bronze Age and Babylon in the Late Bronze Age similarly had large populations. The earliest mention of Babylonia appears on a tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad in the 23rd century BC, the Amorite dynasty established the city-state of Babylon in the 19th century BC. Over 100 years later, it took over the other city-states. Babylonia adopted the written Semitic Akkadian language for official use, by that time, the Sumerian language was no longer spoken, but was still in religious use. Elam was an ancient civilization located to the east of Mesopotamia, in the Old Elamite period, Elam consisted of kingdoms on the Iranian plateau, centered in Anshan, and from the mid-2nd millennium BC, it was centered in Susa in the Khuzestan lowlands. Its culture played a role in the Gutian Empire and especially during the Achaemenid dynasty that succeeded it
22.
Gemstone
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A gemstone is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks or organic materials that are not minerals are used for jewelry and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their luster or other properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstone, apart from jewelry, from earliest antiquity engraved gems and hardstone carvings, such as cups, were major luxury art forms. A gem maker is called a lapidary or gemcutter, a worker is a diamantaire. The carvings of Carl Fabergé are significant works in this tradition, the traditional classification in the West, which goes back to the ancient Greeks, begins with a distinction between precious and semi-precious, similar distinctions are made in other cultures. In modern usage the precious stones are diamond, ruby, sapphire, other stones are classified by their color, translucency and hardness. Another unscientific term for semi-precious gemstones used in art history and archaeology is hardstone, in modern times gemstones are identified by gemologists, who describe gems and their characteristics using technical terminology specific to the field of gemology. The first characteristic a gemologist uses to identify a gemstone is its chemical composition, for example, diamonds are made of carbon and rubies of aluminium oxide. Next, many gems are crystals which are classified by their crystal system such as cubic or trigonal or monoclinic, another term used is habit, the form the gem is usually found in. For example, diamonds, which have a crystal system, are often found as octahedrons. Gemstones are classified into different groups, species, and varieties, for example, ruby is the red variety of the species corundum, while any other color of corundum is considered sapphire. Other examples are the Emerald, aquamarine, red beryl, goshenite, heliodor, and morganite, gems are characterized in terms of refractive index, dispersion, specific gravity, hardness, cleavage, fracture, and luster. They may exhibit pleochroism or double refraction and they may have luminescence and a distinctive absorption spectrum. Material or flaws within a stone may be present as inclusions, gemstones may also be classified in terms of their water. This is a grading of the gems luster, transparency. Very transparent gems are considered first water, while second or third water gems are those of a lesser transparency, there is no universally accepted grading system for gemstones. Diamonds are graded using a system developed by the Gemological Institute of America in the early 1950s, historically, all gemstones were graded using the naked eye
23.
Abrasive
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An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away by friction. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflective surface, in short, the Ceramics which are used to cut, grind and polish other softer materials are known as Abrasives. Abrasives are extremely commonplace and are used extensively in a wide variety of industrial, domestic. This gives rise to a variation in the physical and chemical composition of abrasives as well as the shape of the abrasive. Common uses for abrasives include grinding, polishing, buffing, honing, cutting, drilling, sharpening, lapping, and sanding. Files are not abrasives, they remove material not by scratching or rubbing, however, diamond files are a form of coated abrasive. Abrasives generally rely upon a difference in hardness between the abrasive and the material being worked upon, the abrasive being the harder of the two substances. Diamond, an abrasive, for instance occurs both naturally and is industrially produced, as is corundum which occurs naturally but which is nowadays more commonly manufactured from bauxite. However, even softer minerals like calcium carbonate are used as abrasives and these minerals are either crushed or are already of a sufficiently small size to permit their use as an abrasive. These grains, commonly called grit, have rough edges, often terminating in points which will decrease the area in contact. The abrasive and the material to be worked are brought into contact while in motion to each other. Abrasives may be classified as natural or synthetic. When discussing sharpening stones, natural stones have long been considered superior, many synthetic abrasives are effectively identical to a natural mineral, differing only in that the synthetic mineral has been manufactured rather than been mined. Impurities in the mineral may make it less effective. Natural abrasives are often sold as dressed stones, usually in the form of a rectangular block, a bonded abrasive is composed of an abrasive material contained within a matrix, although very fine aluminium oxide abrasive may comprise sintered material. This matrix is called a binder and is often a clay, a resin and this mixture of binder and abrasive is typically shaped into blocks, sticks, or wheels. The most usual abrasive used is aluminium oxide, also common are silicon carbide, tungsten carbide and garnet. Artificial sharpening stones are often a bonded abrasive and are available as a two sided block, each side being a different grade of grit
24.
Pyrope
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The mineral pyrope is a member of the garnet group. Pyrope is the member of the garnet family to always display red colouration in natural samples. Despite being less common than most garnets, it is a widely used gemstone with numerous alternative names, chrome pyrope, and Bohemian garnet are two alternative names, the usage of the latter being discouraged by the Gemological Institute of America. Misnomers include Colorado ruby, Arizona ruby, California ruby, Rocky Mountain ruby, Elie Ruby, Bohemian carbuncle, the composition of pure pyrope is Mg3Al23, although typically other elements are present in at least minor proportions—these other elements include Ca, Cr, Fe and Mn. Pyrope forms a solid solution series with almandine and spessartine, which are known as the pyralspite garnets. Iron and manganese substitute for the magnesium in the pyrope structure, the resultant, mixed composition garnets are defined according to their pyrope-almandine ratio. The semi-precious stone rhodolite is a garnet of ~70% pyrope composition, the origin of most pyrope is in ultramafic rocks, typically peridotite from the Earths mantle, these mantle-derived peridotites can be attributed both to igneous and metamorphic processes. Pyrope also occurs in metamorphic rocks, as in the Dora-Maira massif in the western Alps. In that massif, nearly pure pyrope occurs in crystals to almost 12 cm in diameter, some of that pyrope has inclusions of coesite, pyrope is common in peridotite xenoliths from kimberlite pipes, some of which are diamond-bearing. These varieties are known as chrome-pyrope, or G9/G10 garnets, in hand specimen, pyrope is very tricky to distinguish from almandine, however it is likely to display fewer flaws and inclusions. Other distinguishing criteria are listed in the adjacent table, care should be taken when using these properties as many of those listed have been determined from synthetically grown, pure-composition pyrope. Others, such as pyropes high specific gravity, may be of use when studying a small crystal embedded in a matrix of other silicate minerals. In these cases, mineral association with other mafic and ultramafic minerals may be the best indication that the garnet you are studying is pyrope, in petrographic thin section, the most distinguishing features of pyrope are those shared with the other common garnets, high relief and isotropy. Garnets tend to be less strongly coloured than other silicate minerals in thin section, the lack of cleavage, commonly euhedral crystal morphology, and mineral associations should also be used in identification of pyrope under the microscope. STEHLÍKOVÁ, Dana, The Bohemian Garnet,1
25.
Almandine
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Almandine /ˈælməndɪn/, also known incorrectly as almandite, is a species of mineral belonging to the garnet group. The name is a corruption of alabandicus, which is the name applied by Pliny the Elder to a stone found or worked at Alabanda, Almandine is an iron alumina garnet, of deep red color, inclining to purple. It is frequently cut with a face, or en cabochon. Viewed through the spectroscope in a light, it generally shows three characteristic absorption bands. Almandine is one end-member of a solid solution series, with the other end member being the garnet pyrope. The almandine crystal formula is, Fe3Al23, magnesium substitutes for the iron with increasingly pyrope-rich composition. Almandine crystallizes in the space group Ia3d, with unit-cell parameter a ≈11.512 Å at 100 K. Almandine is antiferromagnetic with the Néel temperature of 7.5 K. It contains two equivalent magnetic sublattices, Almandine occurs rather abundantly in the gem-gravels of Sri Lanka, whence it has sometimes been called Ceylon-ruby. When the color inclines to a violet tint, the stone is often called Syriam garnet, a said to be taken from Syriam. Fine rhombic dodecahedra occur in the rocks of the Zillertal, in Tyrol. An almandine in which the oxide is replaced partly by magnesia is found at Luisenfeld in German East Africa. In the United States there are many localities which yield almandine, fine crystals of almandine embedded in mica-schist occur near Wrangell in Alaska. The coarse varieties of almandine are often crushed for use as an abrasive agent
26.
Spessartine
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Spessartine, sometimes mistakenly referred to as spessartite, is a nesosilicate, manganese aluminium garnet species, Mn2+3Al23. The mineral spessartine should not be confused with a type of rock called spessartite. Spessartines name is a derivative of Spessart in Bavaria, Germany and it occurs most often in granite pegmatite and allied rock types and in certain low-grade metamorphic phyllites. Sources include Australia, Myanmar, India, Afghanistan, Israel, Madagascar, Tanzania, Spessartine of an orange-yellow has been called Mandarin garnet and is found in Madagascar. Violet-red spessartines are found in rhyolites in Colorado and Maine, in Madagascar, spessartines are exploited either in their bedrock or in alluvium. The orange garnets result from sodium-rich pegmatites, spessartines are found in bedrock in the highlands in the Sahatany valley. Those in alluvium are generally found in southern Madagascar or in the Maevatanana region, Spessartine forms a solid solution series with the garnet species almandine. Well-formed crystals from this series, varying in color from very dark-red to bright yellow-orange, were found in Latinka, Rhodope Mountains, Kardzhali Province, Spessartine, like the other garnets, always occurs as a blend with other species. Gems with high spessartine content tend toward a light orange hue, media related to Spessartine at Wikimedia Commons
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Grossular
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Grossular is a calcium-aluminium species of the garnet group of minerals. It has the formula of Ca3Al23 but the calcium may, in part, be replaced by ferrous iron. The name grossular is derived from the name for the gooseberry, grossularia. Other shades include cinnamon brown, red, and yellow, in geological literature, grossular has often been called grossularite. Since 1971, however, use of the term grossularite for the mineral has been discouraged by the International Mineralogical Association, hessonite or Cinnamon Stone, is a more common variety of grossular with the general formula, Ca3Al2Si3O12. The name comes from the Ancient Greek, ἣσσων, meaning inferior and it has a characteristic red color, inclining to orange or yellow, much like that of zircon. It was shown many years ago, by Sir Arthur Herbert Church, the difference is readily detected by the specific gravity, that of hessonite being 3.64 to 3.69, while that of zircon is about 4.6. Hessonite has a similar hardness to that of quartz, while the hardness of most garnet species is nearer 7.5, hessonite comes chiefly from Sri Lanka and India where it is found generally in placer deposits, though its occurrence in its native matrix is not unknown. It is also found in Brazil and California, Grossular is found in contact metamorphosed limestones with vesuvianite, diopside, wollastonite and wernerite. A highly sought after variety of gem garnet is the fine green Grossular garnet from Kenya and this garnet was discovered in the 1960s in the Tsavo area of Kenya, from which the gem takes its name. Viluite is a variety name of grossular, that is not a mineral species. It is usually olive green though sometimes brownish or reddish, brought about by impurities in the crystal and this confusion in nomenclature dates back to James Dwight Dana. It comes from the Vilyuy river area in Siberia, misnomers include South African jade, garnet jade, Transvaal jade, and African jade. Hydrogrossular Webmineral data Mineral Data Publishing
28.
Tsavorite
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Tsavorite or tsavolite is a variety of the garnet group species grossular, a calcium-aluminium garnet with the formula Ca3Al2Si3O12. Trace amounts of vanadium or chromium provide the green color, the specimens he found were of very intense color and of high transparency. The find interested the gem trade, and attempts were made to export the stones, believing that the deposit was a part of a larger geological structure extending possibly into Kenya, Bridges began prospecting in that nation. He was successful a second time in 1971, when he found the mineral variety there, the gemstone was known only to mineral specialists until 1974, when Tiffany and Co launched a marketing campaign which brought broader recognition of the stone. Bridges was murdered in 2009 when a mob attacked him and his son on their property in Tsavo East National Park and it is believed that the attack was connected to a three-year dispute over access and control of Bridges gemstone mines. The name tsavorite was proposed by Tiffany and Co president Sir Henry Platt in honor of Tsavo East National Park in Kenya, apart from the source locality in Tanzania it is also found in Toliara Province, Madagascar. Small deposits of gem material have been found in Pakistan and Queen Maud Land. No other occurrences of gem material have been discovered, rare in gem-quality over several carats, tsavorite has been found in larger sizes. In late 2006 a 925-carat crystal was discovered and it yielded an oval mixed-cut 325 carat stone, one of the largest, if not the largest faceted tsavorites in the world. A crystal that yielded a 120. 68-carat oval mixed-cut gem was also uncovered in early 2006, Tsavorite formed in a Neoproterozoic metamorphic event which involved extensive folding and refolding of rock. This resulted in a range of inclusions forming within most Tsavorite crystals. These inclusions are strong identifying features in Tsavorite, mindat. org http, //www. gemstone. org/gem-by-gem/english/tsavorite. html The ICAs tsavorite information page. Machete mob murders British gemstone miner in Kenya Campbell Bridges - Daily Telegraph obituary
29.
Uvarovite
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Uvarovite is a chromium-bearing garnet group species with the formula, Ca3Cr23. It was discovered in 1832 by Germain Henri Hess who named it after Count Sergei Semenovitch Uvarov, uvarovite is one of the rarest of the garnet group minerals, and is the only consistently green garnet species, with an emerald-green color. It occurs as well-formed fine-sized crystals and it is found associated with chromium ores in Spain, Russia, and Quebec in Canada. It also occurs in Finland, Iran, Norway, and South Africa, list of minerals named after people
30.
Andradite
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Andradite is a species of the garnet group. It is a nesosilicate, with formula Ca3Fe2Si3O12, Andradite includes three varieties, Melanite, Black in color, referred to as titanian andradite. Demantoid, Vivid green in color, one of the most valuable, topazolite, Yellow-green in color and sometimes of high enough quality to be cut into a faceted gemstone, it is rarer than demantoid. It was first described in 1868 for an occurrence in Drammen, Buskerud, Andradite was named after the Brazilian statesman, naturalist, professor and poet José Bonifácio de Andrade e Silva. It occurs in skarns developed in contact metamorphosed impure limestones or calcic igneous rocks, in chlorite schists and serpentinites, associated minerals include vesuvianite, chlorite, epidote, spinel, calcite, dolomite and magnetite. It is found in Italy, the Ural Mountains of Russia, Arizona and California, like the other garnets, andradite crystallizes in the cubic space group, with unit-cell parameter of 12.051 Å at 100 K. The spin structure of andradite contains two mutually canted equivalent antiferromagnetic sublattices below the Néel temperature, media related to Andradite at Wikimedia Commons
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Solid solution
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A solid solution is a solid-state solution of one or more solutes in a solvent. The solid solution needs to be distinguished from a mechanical mixtures of powdered solids like two salts, sugar and salt, etc, the mechanical mixtures have total or partial miscibility gap in solid state. Examples of solid solutions include crystallized salts from their liquid mixture, metal alloys, in the case of metal alloys intermetallic compounds occur frequently. The solute may incorporate into the solvent crystal lattice substitutionally, by replacing a solvent particle in the lattice, or interstitially, by fitting into the space between solvent particles. Both of these types of solid solution affect the properties of the material by distorting the crystal lattice, some mixtures will readily form solid solutions over a range of concentrations, while other mixtures will not form solid solutions at all. The propensity for any two substances to form a solution is a complicated matter involving the chemical, crystallographic. 1 displays an alloy of two metals which forms a solution at all relative concentrations of the two species. Solid solutions have important commercial and industrial applications, as such mixtures often have superior properties to pure materials, many metal alloys are solid solutions. Even small amounts of solute can affect the electrical and physical properties of the solvent, the binary phase diagram in Fig.2 shows the phases of a mixture of two substances in varying concentrations, A and B. The region labeled α is a solution, with B acting as the solute in a matrix of A. On the other end of the scale, the region labeled β is also a solid solution. The large solid region in between the α and β solid solutions, labeled α + β, is not a solid solution, at other proportions, the material will enter a mushy or pasty phase until it warms up to being completely melted. The mixture at the dip point of the diagram is called a eutectic alloy, lead-tin mixtures formulated at that point are useful when soldering electronic components, particularly if done manually, since the solid phase is quickly entered as the solder cools. In contrast, when lead-tin mixtures were used to solder seams in automobile bodies a pasty state enabled a shape to be formed with a paddle or tool. When a solid solution becomes unstable — due to a temperature, for example — exsolution occurs. This is mainly caused by difference in cation size, cations which have a large difference in radii are not likely to readily substitute. Take the alkali feldspar minerals for example, whose end members are albite, NaAlSi3O8 and microcline and this leads to exsolution where they will separate into two separate phases. In the case of the feldspar minerals, thin white albite layers will alternate between typically pink microcline
32.
Middle English
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This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages. Middle English developed out of Late Old English, seeing many dramatic changes in its grammar, pronunciation and this largely forms the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by the era of Early Modern English, by that time, a variant of the Northumbrian dialect was developing into the Scots language. During the Middle English period many Old English grammatical features were simplified or disappeared, noun, adjective and verb inflections were simplified, a process that included the reduction of most grammatical case distinctions. Middle English also saw an adoption of Norman French vocabulary, especially in areas such as politics, law. Everyday English vocabulary remained mostly Germanic, with Old Norse influence becoming apparent, significant changes in pronunciation took place, especially for long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift. Little survives of early Middle English literature, most likely due to the Norman domination, poets wrote both in the vernacular and courtly English. It is popularly believed that William Shakespeare wrote in Middle English, the latter part of the 11th century was a period of transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English. The influence of Old Norse certainly helped move English from a synthetic language towards a more analytic or isolating word order and it was, after all, a salutary influence. The gain was greater than the loss, there was a gain in directness, in clarity, and in strength. The change to Old English from Old Norse was substantive, pervasive and it is most important to recognise that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. In the mixed population which existed in the Danelaw these endings must have led to confusion, tending gradually to become obscured. This blending of peoples and languages resulted in simplifying English grammar. There are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the cultures that arose in the 12th century. Sometimes, and particularly later, words were taken from Latin, giving such sets as kingly, later French borrowings came from standard rather than Norman French, this leads to such cognate pairs as warden, guardian. The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not, of course, change the language immediately, the general population would have spoken the same dialects as before the Conquest, these changed slowly until written records of them became available for study, which varies in different regions. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English had no standard language, Early Middle English has a largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, but a greatly simplified inflectional system
33.
Pomegranate
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The pomegranate, botanical name Punica granatum, is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree in the family Lythraceae that grows between 5 and 8 m tall. The fruit is typically in season in the Northern Hemisphere from September to February, as intact arils or juice, pomegranates are used in baking, cooking, juice blends, meal garnishes, smoothies, and alcoholic beverages, such as cocktails and wine. The pomegranate originated in the region of modern-day Iran, and has been cultivated since ancient times throughout the Mediterranean region and it was introduced into Spanish America in the late 16th century and California, by Spanish settlers, in 1769. It is also cultivated in parts of Arizona and California, in recent years, it has become more common in the commercial markets of Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The name pomegranate derives from medieval Latin pōmum apple and grānātum seeded, possibly stemming from the old French word for the fruit, pomme-grenade, the pomegranate was known in early English as apple of Grenada—a term which today survives only in heraldic blazons. This is a folk etymology, confusing the Latin granatus with the name of the Spanish city of Granada, garnet derives from Old French grenat by metathesis, from Medieval Latin granatum as used in a different meaning of a dark red color. This derivation may have originated from pomum granatum, describing the color of pomegranate pulp, or from granum, referring to red dye, the French term for pomegranate, grenade, has given its name to the military grenade. A shrub or small tree growing 6 to 10 m high, P. granatum leaves are opposite or subopposite, glossy, narrow oblong, entire, 3–7 cm long and 2 cm broad. The flowers are red and 3 cm in diameter, with three to seven petals. Some fruitless varieties are grown for the flowers alone, the edible fruit is a berry, intermediate in size between a lemon and a grapefruit, 5–12 cm in diameter with a rounded shape and thick, reddish skin. The number of seeds in a pomegranate can vary from 200 to about 1400, each seed has a surrounding water-laden pulp — the edible sarcotesta that forms from the seed coat — ranging in color from white to deep red or purple. The seeds are exarillate, i. e. unlike some species in the order, Myrtales. The sarcotesta of pomegranate seeds consists of cells derived from the integument. The seeds are embedded in a white, spongy, astringent membrane, P. granatum is grown for its fruit crop, and as ornamental trees and shrubs in parks and gardens. Mature specimens can develop sculptural twisted-bark multiple trunks and an overall form. Pomegranates are drought-tolerant, and can be grown in dry areas with either a Mediterranean winter rainfall climate or in summer rainfall climates, in wetter areas, they can be prone to root decay from fungal diseases. They can be tolerant of moderate frost, down to about −12 °C, Pomegranate grows easily from seed, but is commonly propagated from 25 to 50 cm hardwood cuttings to avoid the genetic variation of seedlings. Air layering is also an option for propagation, but grafting fails, P. granatum var. nana is a dwarf variety of P. granatum popularly planted as an ornamental plant in gardens and larger containers, and used as a bonsai specimen tree
34.
Aril
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An aril, also called an arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode or false aril is sometimes distinguished, whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the seed to the ovary, the term aril is sometimes applied to any fleshy appendage of the seed in flowering plants, such as the mace of the nutmeg seed. Arils and arillodes are often edible enticements, encouraging transport by animals, the aril may create a fruit-like structure. False fruit are found in numerous Angiosperm taxa, the edible flesh of the longan, lychee and ackee fruits are highly developed arils surrounding the seed rather than a pericarp layer. Such arils are also found in a few species of gymnosperms, notably the yews and related such as the lleuque. Instead of the woody cone typical of most gymnosperms, the structure of the yew consists of a single seed that becomes surrounded by a fleshy. This covering is derived from a highly modified cone scale, the kahikatea tree, Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, is native to New Zealand. In pre-European times the aril of the kahikatea was a source for Māori. The washed arils were called koroi and were eaten raw, elaiosome Sarcotesta, a fleshy epidermal layer of a seed coat, as in pomegranate Anderson, E. & Owens, J. N. Analysing the reproductive biology of Taxus, should it be included in Coniferales
35.
Silicate minerals
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Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of rock-forming minerals and they are classified based on the structure of their silicate groups, which contain different ratios of silicon and oxygen. Nesosilicates, or orthosilicates, have the orthosilicate ion, which constitute isolated 4− tetrahedra that are connected only by interstitial cations and these exist as 3-member 6− and 6-member 12− rings, where T stands for a tetrahedrally coordinated cation. Inosilicates, or chain silicates, have interlocking chains of silicate tetrahedra with either SiO3,1,3 ratio, for single chains or Si4O11,4,11 ratio, for double chains. Nickel–Strunz classification,09. D Pyroxene group Enstatite – orthoferrosilite series Enstatite – MgSiO3 Ferrosilite – FeSiO3 Pigeonite – Ca0.251, all phyllosilicate minerals are hydrated, with either water or hydroxyl groups attached. Serpentine subgroup Antigorite – Mg3Si2O54 Chrysotile – Mg3Si2O54 Lizardite – Mg3Si2O54 Clay minerals group Halloysite – Al2Si2O54 Kaolinite – Al2Si2O54 Illite – 24O10 Montmorillonite –0 and this group comprises nearly 75% of the crust of the Earth. Tectosilicates, with the exception of the group, are aluminosilicates. Nickel–Strunz classification,09. F and 09. G,04. A, an introduction to the rock-forming minerals. Wise, W. S. Zussman, J. Rock-forming minerals, P.982 pp. Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Danas Manual of Mineralogy. Mindat. org, Dana classification Webmineral, Danas New Silicate Classification Media related to Silicates at Wikimedia Commons
36.
Silicon
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Silicon is a chemical element with symbol Si and atomic number 14. A hard and brittle crystalline solid with a metallic luster. It is a member of group 14 in the table, along with carbon above it and germanium, tin, lead. It is not very reactive, although more reactive than germanium, Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure element in the Earths crust. It is most widely distributed in dusts, sands, planetoids, over 90% of the Earths crust is composed of silicate minerals, making silicon the second most abundant element in the Earths crust after oxygen. Most silicon is used commercially without being separated, and often with little processing of the natural minerals, such use includes industrial construction with clays, silica sand, and stone. Silicate is used in Portland cement for mortar and stucco, and mixed with sand and gravel to make concrete for walkways, foundations. Silicates are used in whiteware ceramics such as porcelain, and in traditional quartz-based soda-lime glass, Silicon compounds such as silicon carbide are used as abrasives and components of high-strength ceramics. Elemental silicon also has an impact on the modern world economy. Most free silicon is used in the refining, aluminium-casting. Silicon is the basis of the widely used synthetic polymers called silicones, Silicon is an essential element in biology, although only tiny traces are required by animals. However, various sea sponges and microorganisms, such as diatoms and radiolaria, silica is deposited in many plant tissues, such as in the bark and wood of Chrysobalanaceae and the silica cells and silicified trichomes of Cannabis sativa, horsetails and many grasses. Silicon is a solid at room temperature, with a point of 1,414 °C. Like water, it has a density in a liquid state than in a solid state and it expands when it freezes. With a relatively high conductivity of 149 W·m−1·K−1, silicon conducts heat well. In its crystalline form, pure silicon has a gray color, like germanium, silicon is rather strong, very brittle, and prone to chipping. Silicon, like carbon and germanium, crystallizes in a cubic crystal structure with a lattice spacing of 0.5430710 nm. The outer electron orbital of silicon, like that of carbon, has four valence electrons, the 1s, 2s, 2p and 3s subshells are completely filled while the 3p subshell contains two electrons out of a possible six
37.
Oxygen
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Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the group on the periodic table and is a highly reactive nonmetal. By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen, at standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula O2. This is an important part of the atmosphere and diatomic oxygen gas constitutes 20. 8% of the Earths atmosphere, additionally, as oxides the element makes up almost half of the Earths crust. Most of the mass of living organisms is oxygen as a component of water, conversely, oxygen is continuously replenished by photosynthesis, which uses the energy of sunlight to produce oxygen from water and carbon dioxide. Oxygen is too reactive to remain a free element in air without being continuously replenished by the photosynthetic action of living organisms. Another form of oxygen, ozone, strongly absorbs ultraviolet UVB radiation, but ozone is a pollutant near the surface where it is a by-product of smog. At low earth orbit altitudes, sufficient atomic oxygen is present to cause corrosion of spacecraft, the name oxygen was coined in 1777 by Antoine Lavoisier, whose experiments with oxygen helped to discredit the then-popular phlogiston theory of combustion and corrosion. One of the first known experiments on the relationship between combustion and air was conducted by the 2nd century BCE Greek writer on mechanics, Philo of Byzantium. In his work Pneumatica, Philo observed that inverting a vessel over a burning candle, Philo incorrectly surmised that parts of the air in the vessel were converted into the classical element fire and thus were able to escape through pores in the glass. Many centuries later Leonardo da Vinci built on Philos work by observing that a portion of air is consumed during combustion and respiration, Oxygen was discovered by the Polish alchemist Sendivogius, who considered it the philosophers stone. In the late 17th century, Robert Boyle proved that air is necessary for combustion, English chemist John Mayow refined this work by showing that fire requires only a part of air that he called spiritus nitroaereus. From this he surmised that nitroaereus is consumed in both respiration and combustion, Mayow observed that antimony increased in weight when heated, and inferred that the nitroaereus must have combined with it. Accounts of these and other experiments and ideas were published in 1668 in his work Tractatus duo in the tract De respiratione. Robert Hooke, Ole Borch, Mikhail Lomonosov, and Pierre Bayen all produced oxygen in experiments in the 17th and the 18th century but none of them recognized it as a chemical element. This may have been in part due to the prevalence of the philosophy of combustion and corrosion called the phlogiston theory, which was then the favored explanation of those processes. Established in 1667 by the German alchemist J. J. Becher, one part, called phlogiston, was given off when the substance containing it was burned, while the dephlogisticated part was thought to be its true form, or calx. The fact that a substance like wood gains overall weight in burning was hidden by the buoyancy of the combustion products
38.
Calcium
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Calcium is a chemical element with symbol Ca and atomic number 20. Calcium is a soft grayish-yellow alkaline earth metal, fifth-most-abundant element by mass in the Earths crust, the ion Ca2+ is also the fifth-most-abundant dissolved ion in seawater by both molarity and mass, after sodium, chloride, magnesium, and sulfate. Free calcium metal is too reactive to occur in nature, Calcium is produced in supernova nucleosynthesis. Calcium is a trace element in living organisms. It is the most abundant metal by mass in animals, and it is an important constituent of bone, teeth. In cell biology, the movement of the calcium ion into, Calcium carbonate and calcium citrate are often taken as dietary supplements. Calcium is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines, Calcium has a wide variety of applications, almost all of which are associated with calcium compounds and salts. Calcium metal is used as a deoxidizer, desulfurizer, and decarbonizer for production of ferrous and nonferrous alloys. In steelmaking and production of iron, Ca reacts with oxygen, Calcium carbonate is used in manufacturing cement and mortar, lime, limestone and aids in production in the glass industry. It also has chemical and optical uses as mineral specimens in toothpastes, Calcium hydroxide solution is used to detect the presence of carbon dioxide in a gas sample bubbled through a solution. The solution turns cloudy where CO2 is present, Calcium arsenate is used in insecticides. Calcium carbide is used to make acetylene gas and various plastics, Calcium chloride is used in ice removal and dust control on dirt roads, as a conditioner for concrete, as an additive in canned tomatoes, and to provide body for automobile tires. Calcium citrate is used as a food preservative, Calcium cyclamate is used as a sweetening agent in several countries. In the United States, it has been outlawed as a suspected carcinogen, Calcium gluconate is used as a food additive and in vitamin pills. Calcium hypochlorite is used as a swimming pool disinfectant, as an agent, as an ingredient in deodorant. Calcium permanganate is used in rocket propellant, textile production, as a water sterilizing agent. Calcium phosphate is used as a supplement for animal feed, fertilizer, in production for dough and yeast products, in the manufacture of glass. Calcium phosphide is used in fireworks, rodenticide, torpedoes, Calcium sulfate is used as common blackboard chalk, as well as, in its hemihydrate form, Plaster of Paris
39.
Magnesium
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Magnesium is a chemical element with symbol Mg and atomic number 12. Magnesium is the ninth most abundant element in the universe and it is produced in large, aging stars from the sequential addition of three helium nuclei to a carbon nucleus. When such stars explode as supernovas, much of the magnesium is expelled into the medium where it may recycle into new star systems. Magnesium is the eighth most abundant element in the Earths crust and the fourth most common element in the Earth, making up 13% of the planets mass and it is the third most abundant element dissolved in seawater, after sodium and chlorine. Magnesium occurs naturally only in combination with elements, where it invariably has a +2 oxidation state. The free element can be produced artificially, and is highly reactive, the free metal burns with a characteristic brilliant-white light. The metal is now obtained mainly by electrolysis of magnesium salts obtained from brine, Magnesium is less dense than aluminium, and the alloy is prized for its combination of lightness and strength. Magnesium is the eleventh most abundant element by mass in the body and is essential to all cells. Magnesium ions interact with polyphosphate compounds such as ATP, DNA, hundreds of enzymes require magnesium ions to function. Magnesium compounds are used medicinally as common laxatives, antacids, elemental magnesium is a gray-white lightweight metal, two-thirds the density of aluminium. Magnesium has the lowest melting and the lowest boiling point 1,363 K of all the alkaline earth metals, Magnesium reacts with water at room temperature, though it reacts much more slowly than calcium, a similar group 2 metal. When submerged in water, hydrogen bubbles form slowly on the surface of the metal—though, if powdered, the reaction occurs faster with higher temperatures. Magnesiums reversible reaction with water can be harnessed to store energy, Magnesium also reacts exothermically with most acids such as hydrochloric acid, producing the metal chloride and hydrogen gas, similar to the HCl reaction with aluminium, zinc, and many other metals. Magnesium is highly flammable, especially when powdered or shaved into thin strips, flame temperatures of magnesium and magnesium alloys can reach 3,100 °C, although flame height above the burning metal is usually less than 300 mm. Once ignited, such fires are difficult to extinguish, with combustion continuing in nitrogen, carbon dioxide, Magnesium may also be used as an igniter for thermite, a mixture of aluminium and iron oxide powder that ignites only at a very high temperature. When burning in air, magnesium produces a light that includes strong ultraviolet wavelengths. Magnesium powder was used for illumination in the early days of photography. Later, magnesium filament was used in electrically ignited single-use photography flashbulbs, Magnesium powder is used in fireworks and marine flares where a brilliant white light is required
40.
Iron
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Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series and it is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earths outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earths crust, like the other group 8 elements, ruthenium and osmium, iron exists in a wide range of oxidation states, −2 to +6, although +2 and +3 are the most common. Elemental iron occurs in meteoroids and other low oxygen environments, but is reactive to oxygen, fresh iron surfaces appear lustrous silvery-gray, but oxidize in normal air to give hydrated iron oxides, commonly known as rust. Unlike the metals that form passivating oxide layers, iron oxides occupy more volume than the metal and thus flake off, Iron metal has been used since ancient times, although copper alloys, which have lower melting temperatures, were used even earlier in human history. Pure iron is soft, but is unobtainable by smelting because it is significantly hardened and strengthened by impurities, in particular carbon. A certain proportion of carbon steel, which may be up to 1000 times harder than pure iron. Crude iron metal is produced in blast furnaces, where ore is reduced by coke to pig iron, further refinement with oxygen reduces the carbon content to the correct proportion to make steel. Steels and iron alloys formed with metals are by far the most common industrial metals because they have a great range of desirable properties. Iron chemical compounds have many uses, Iron oxide mixed with aluminium powder can be ignited to create a thermite reaction, used in welding and purifying ores. Iron forms binary compounds with the halogens and the chalcogens, among its organometallic compounds is ferrocene, the first sandwich compound discovered. Iron plays an important role in biology, forming complexes with oxygen in hemoglobin and myoglobin. Iron is also the metal at the site of many important redox enzymes dealing with cellular respiration and oxidation and reduction in plants. A human male of average height has about 4 grams of iron in his body and this iron is distributed throughout the body in hemoglobin, tissues, muscles, bone marrow, blood proteins, enzymes, ferritin, hemosiderin, and transport in plasma. The mechanical properties of iron and its alloys can be evaluated using a variety of tests, including the Brinell test, Rockwell test, the data on iron is so consistent that it is often used to calibrate measurements or to compare tests. An increase in the content will cause a significant increase in the hardness. Maximum hardness of 65 Rc is achieved with a 0. 6% carbon content, because of the softness of iron, it is much easier to work with than its heavier congeners ruthenium and osmium. Because of its significance for planetary cores, the properties of iron at high pressures and temperatures have also been studied extensively
41.
Manganese
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Manganese is a chemical element with symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is not found as an element in nature, it is often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a metal with important industrial metal alloy uses, particularly in stainless steels, by the mid-18th century, Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele had used pyrolusite to produce chlorine. Scheele and others were aware that pyrolusite contained a new element, johan Gottlieb Gahn was the first to isolate an impure sample of manganese metal in 1774, which he did by reducing the dioxide with carbon. Manganese phosphating is used for rust and corrosion prevention on steel, ionized manganese is used industrially as pigments of various colors, which depend on the oxidation state of the ions. The permanganates of alkali and alkaline earth metals are powerful oxidizers, Manganese dioxide is used as the cathode material in zinc-carbon and alkaline batteries. In biology, manganese ions function as cofactors for a variety of enzymes with many functions. Manganese enzymes are essential in detoxification of superoxide free radicals in organisms that must deal with elemental oxygen. Manganese also functions in the complex of photosynthetic plants. The element is a trace mineral for all known living organisms but is a neurotoxin. In larger amounts, and apparently with far greater effectiveness through inhalation, Manganese is a silvery-gray metal that resembles iron. It is hard and very brittle, difficult to fuse, Manganese metal and its common ions are paramagnetic. Manganese tarnishes slowly in air and oxidizes like iron in water containing dissolved oxygen, naturally occurring manganese is composed of one stable isotope, 55Mn. Eighteen radioisotopes have been isolated and described, the most stable being 53Mn with a half-life of 3.7 million years, 54Mn with a half-life of 312.3 days, and 52Mn with a half-life of 5.591 days. All of the radioactive isotopes have half-lives of less than three hours, and the majority of less than one minute. Manganese also has three meta states, Manganese is part of the iron group of elements, which are thought to be synthesized in large stars shortly before the supernova explosion. 53Mn decays to 53Cr with a half-life of 3.7 million years, because of its relatively short half-life, 53Mn is relatively rare, produced by cosmic rays impact on iron. Manganese isotopic contents are combined with chromium isotopic contents and have found application in isotope geology
42.
Aluminium
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Aluminium or aluminum is a chemical element in the boron group with symbol Al and atomic number 13. It is a silvery-white, soft, nonmagnetic, ductile metal, Aluminium metal is so chemically reactive that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments. Instead, it is combined in over 270 different minerals. The chief ore of aluminium is bauxite, Aluminium is remarkable for the metals low density and its ability to resist corrosion through the phenomenon of passivation. Aluminium and its alloys are vital to the industry and important in transportation and structures, such as building facades. The oxides and sulfates are the most useful compounds of aluminium, despite its prevalence in the environment, no known form of life uses aluminium salts metabolically, but aluminium is well tolerated by plants and animals. Because of these salts abundance, the potential for a role for them is of continuing interest. Aluminium is a soft, durable, lightweight, ductile. It is nonmagnetic and does not easily ignite, a fresh film of aluminium serves as a good reflector of visible light and an excellent reflector of medium and far infrared radiation. The yield strength of aluminium is 7–11 MPa, while aluminium alloys have yield strengths ranging from 200 MPa to 600 MPa. Aluminium has about one-third the density and stiffness of steel and it is easily machined, cast, drawn and extruded. Aluminium atoms are arranged in a cubic structure. Aluminium has an energy of approximately 200 mJ/m2. Aluminium is a thermal and electrical conductor, having 59% the conductivity of copper. Aluminium is capable of superconductivity, with a critical temperature of 1.2 kelvin. Aluminium is the most common material for the fabrication of superconducting qubits, the strongest aluminium alloys are less corrosion resistant due to galvanic reactions with alloyed copper. This corrosion resistance is reduced by aqueous salts, particularly in the presence of dissimilar metals. In highly acidic solutions, aluminium reacts with water to form hydrogen, primarily because it is corroded by dissolved chlorides, such as common sodium chloride, household plumbing is never made from aluminium
43.
Chromium
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Chromium is a chemical element with symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 and it is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard and brittle metal which takes a high polish, resists tarnishing, and has a high melting point. The name of the element is derived from the Greek word χρῶμα, chrōma, meaning color, Chromium metal is of high value for its high corrosion resistance and hardness. A major development was the discovery that steel could be highly resistant to corrosion and discoloration by adding metallic chromium to form stainless steel. Stainless steel and chrome plating together comprise 85% of the commercial use, trivalent chromium ion is an essential nutrient in trace amounts in humans for insulin, sugar and lipid metabolism, although the issue is debated. While chromium metal and Cr ions are not considered toxic, hexavalent chromium is toxic and carcinogenic, abandoned chromium production sites often require environmental cleanup. Chromium is remarkable for its properties, it is the only elemental solid which shows antiferromagnetic ordering at room temperature. Above 38 °C, it changes to paramagnetic, Chromium metal left standing in air is passivated by oxidation, forming a thin, protective, surface layer. This layer is a structure only a few molecules thick. It is very dense, and prevents the diffusion of oxygen into the underlying metal and this is different from the oxide that forms on iron and carbon steel, through which elemental oxygen continues to migrate, reaching the underlying material to cause incessant rusting. Passivation can be enhanced by short contact with oxidizing acids like nitric acid, passivated chromium is stable against acids. Passivation can be removed with a reducing agent that destroys the protective oxide layer on the metal. Chromium metal treated in this way readily dissolves in weak acids, Chromium, unlike such metals as iron and nickel, does not suffer from hydrogen embrittlement. However, it suffer from nitrogen embrittlement, reacting with nitrogen from air. Chromium is the 22nd most abundant element in Earths crust with a concentration of 100 ppm. Chromium compounds are found in the environment from the erosion of chromium-containing rocks, Chromium is mined as chromite ore. About two-fifths of the ores and concentrates in the world are produced in South Africa, while Kazakhstan, India, Russia. Untapped chromite deposits are plentiful, but geographically concentrated in Kazakhstan, although rare, deposits of native chromium exist
44.
Octahedron
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In geometry, an octahedron is a polyhedron with eight faces, twelve edges, and six vertices. A regular octahedron is a Platonic solid composed of eight equilateral triangles, a regular octahedron is the dual polyhedron of a cube. It is a square bipyramid in any of three orthogonal orientations and it is also a triangular antiprism in any of four orientations. An octahedron is the case of the more general concept of a cross polytope. A regular octahedron is a 3-ball in the Manhattan metric, the second and third correspond to the B2 and A2 Coxeter planes. The octahedron can also be represented as a tiling. This projection is conformal, preserving angles but not areas or lengths, straight lines on the sphere are projected as circular arcs on the plane. An octahedron with edge length √2 can be placed with its center at the origin and its vertices on the coordinate axes, the Cartesian coordinates of the vertices are then. In an x–y–z Cartesian coordinate system, the octahedron with center coordinates, additionally the inertia tensor of the stretched octahedron is I =. These reduce to the equations for the regular octahedron when x m = y m = z m = a 22, the interior of the compound of two dual tetrahedra is an octahedron, and this compound, called the stella octangula, is its first and only stellation. Correspondingly, an octahedron is the result of cutting off from a regular tetrahedron. One can also divide the edges of an octahedron in the ratio of the mean to define the vertices of an icosahedron. There are five octahedra that define any given icosahedron in this fashion, octahedra and tetrahedra can be alternated to form a vertex, edge, and face-uniform tessellation of space, called the octet truss by Buckminster Fuller. This is the only such tiling save the regular tessellation of cubes, another is a tessellation of octahedra and cuboctahedra. The octahedron is unique among the Platonic solids in having a number of faces meeting at each vertex. Consequently, it is the member of that group to possess mirror planes that do not pass through any of the faces. Using the standard nomenclature for Johnson solids, an octahedron would be called a square bipyramid, truncation of two opposite vertices results in a square bifrustum. The octahedron is 4-connected, meaning that it takes the removal of four vertices to disconnect the remaining vertices and it is one of only four 4-connected simplicial well-covered polyhedra, meaning that all of the maximal independent sets of its vertices have the same size
45.
Tetrahedron
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In geometry, a tetrahedron, also known as a triangular pyramid, is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, six straight edges, and four vertex corners. The tetrahedron is the simplest of all the ordinary convex polyhedra, the tetrahedron is the three-dimensional case of the more general concept of a Euclidean simplex. The tetrahedron is one kind of pyramid, which is a polyhedron with a polygon base. In the case of a tetrahedron the base is a triangle, like all convex polyhedra, a tetrahedron can be folded from a single sheet of paper. For any tetrahedron there exists a sphere on which all four vertices lie, a regular tetrahedron is one in which all four faces are equilateral triangles. It is one of the five regular Platonic solids, which have known since antiquity. In a regular tetrahedron, not only are all its faces the same size and shape, regular tetrahedra alone do not tessellate, but if alternated with regular octahedra they form the alternated cubic honeycomb, which is a tessellation. The regular tetrahedron is self-dual, which means that its dual is another regular tetrahedron, the compound figure comprising two such dual tetrahedra form a stellated octahedron or stella octangula. This form has Coxeter diagram and Schläfli symbol h, the tetrahedron in this case has edge length 2√2. Inverting these coordinates generates the dual tetrahedron, and the together form the stellated octahedron. In other words, if C is the centroid of the base and this follows from the fact that the medians of a triangle intersect at its centroid, and this point divides each of them in two segments, one of which is twice as long as the other. The vertices of a cube can be grouped into two groups of four, each forming a regular tetrahedron, the symmetries of a regular tetrahedron correspond to half of those of a cube, those that map the tetrahedra to themselves, and not to each other. The tetrahedron is the only Platonic solid that is not mapped to itself by point inversion, the regular tetrahedron has 24 isometries, forming the symmetry group Td, isomorphic to the symmetric group, S4. The first corresponds to the A2 Coxeter plane, the two skew perpendicular opposite edges of a regular tetrahedron define a set of parallel planes. When one of these intersects the tetrahedron the resulting cross section is a rectangle. When the intersecting plane is one of the edges the rectangle is long. When halfway between the two edges the intersection is a square, the aspect ratio of the rectangle reverses as you pass this halfway point. For the midpoint square intersection the resulting boundary line traverses every face of the tetrahedron similarly, if the tetrahedron is bisected on this plane, both halves become wedges
46.
Dodecahedral
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In geometry, a dodecahedron is any polyhedron with twelve flat faces. The most familiar dodecahedron is the dodecahedron, which is a Platonic solid. There are also three regular star dodecahedra, which are constructed as stellations of the convex form, all of these have icosahedral symmetry, order 120. The pyritohedron is a pentagonal dodecahedron, having the same topology as the regular one. The rhombic dodecahedron, seen as a case of the pyritohedron has octahedral symmetry. The elongated dodecahedron and trapezo-rhombic dodecahedron variations, along with the rhombic dodecahedra are space-filling, there are a large number of other dodecahedra. The convex regular dodecahedron is one of the five regular Platonic solids, the dual polyhedron is the regular icosahedron, having five equilateral triangles around each vertex. Like the regular dodecahedron, it has twelve pentagonal faces. However, the pentagons are not constrained to be regular, and its 30 edges are divided into two sets – containing 24 and 6 edges of the same length. The only axes of symmetry are three mutually perpendicular twofold axes and four threefold axes. Note that the regular dodecahedron can occur as a shape for quasicrystals with icosahedral symmetry. Its name comes from one of the two common crystal habits shown by pyrite, the one being the cube. The coordinates of the eight vertices of the cube are, The coordinates of the 12 vertices of the cross-edges are. When h =1, the six cross-edges degenerate to points, when h =0, the cross-edges are absorbed in the facets of the cube, and the pyritohedron reduces to a cube. When h = √5 − 1/2, the inverse of the golden ratio, a reflected pyritohedron is made by swapping the nonzero coordinates above. The two pyritohedra can be superimposed to give the compound of two dodecahedra as seen in the image here, the regular dodecahedron represents a special intermediate case where all edges and angles are equal. A tetartoid is a dodecahedron with chiral tetrahedral symmetry, like the regular dodecahedron, it has twelve identical pentagonal faces, with three meeting in each of the 20 vertices. However, the pentagons are not regular and the figure has no fivefold symmetry axes, although regular dodecahedra do not exist in crystals, the tetartoid form does
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Deltoidal icositetrahedron
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In geometry, a deltoidal icositetrahedron is a Catalan solid which looks a bit like an overinflated cube. Its dual polyhedron is the rhombicuboctahedron, the short and long edges of each kite are in the ratio 1, ≈1,1.292893. The shape is called a trapezohedron in mineral contexts, although in solid geometry that name has another meaning. The deltoidal icositetrahedron has three positions, all centered on vertices, The great triakis octahedron is a stellation of the deltoidal icositetrahedron. The deltoidal icositetrahedron is topologically equivalent to a cube whose faces are divided in quadrants and it can also be projected onto a regular octahedron, with kite faces, or more general quadrilaterals with pyritohedral symmetry. In Conway polyhedron notation, they represent an ortho operation to a cube or octahedron, in crystallography a rotational variation is called a dyakis dodecahedron or diploid. The deltoidal icositetrahedron is one of a family of duals to the uniform polyhedra related to the cube and this polyhedron is topologically related as a part of sequence of deltoidal polyhedra with face figure, and continues as tilings of the hyperbolic plane. These face-transitive figures have reflectional symmetry, deltoidal hexecontahedron Tetrakis hexahedron, another 24-face Catalan solid which looks a bit like an overinflated cube. The Haunter of the Dark, a story by H. P, lovecraft, whose plot involves this figure Williams, Robert. The Geometrical Foundation of Natural Structure, A Source Book of Design, deltoidal Icositetrahedron – Interactive Polyhedron model
