What are crystals? Detailed answer

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What are crystals? Detailed answer

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What are crystals?

Perhaps you think that a crystal is a rare and beautiful mineral or gem. You are partly right. Emeralds and diamonds are crystals. But not all crystals are rare or beautiful. Each individual particle of salt or sugar is also a crystal! Many of the most common substances around us are crystals.

A crystal is a solid state of matter. It has a certain shape and a certain number of faces due to the arrangement of its atoms. All crystals of the same substance have the same shape, although they may differ in size. In nature, there are hundreds of substances that form crystals. Water is one of the most common of them. Freezing water turns into ice crystals or snowflakes.

Mineral crystals are also formed during certain rock-forming processes. Huge amounts of hot and molten rocks deep underground are actually mineral solutions. When masses of these liquid or molten rocks are pushed to the surface of the earth, they begin to cool. They cool very slowly. Minerals turn into crystals when they change from a hot liquid state to a cold solid state. For example, mountain granite contains crystals of minerals such as quartz, feldspar, and mica. Millions of years ago, granite was a molten mass of minerals in a liquid state.

At present, there are masses of molten rocks in the earth's crust, which are slowly cooling and forming crystals of various types. Crystals can have all sorts of shapes. All known crystals in the world can be divided into 32 types, which in turn can be grouped into six types.

Crystals can have different sizes. Some minerals form crystals that can only be seen with a microscope. Others form crystals weighing several hundred pounds.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

What was the last country that Scotland invaded?

Panama.

One of the last projects of Scotland before the "Act of Union" of 1707, which annexed it to England and Wales and formed Great Britain, was an ambitious attempt to create its own colony in Darien, as Panama was formerly called.

This whole crazy idea was invented by one person - William Paterson, founder of the Bank of England. Paterson saw in the project the possibility of creating a Scottish trading outpost in Central America, which would serve as a link between the wealth of the Pacific Ocean and the trading countries of Western Europe.

The British pretty quickly deleted themselves from the list of partners. At that time, they were just at war with France and did not want to take risks so as not to arouse the wrath of the Spaniards (who also had views of Panama). Hearing of Paterson's intention, the British government forbade its subjects to invest in the project. Then Paterson decides to look for the necessary funds north of the border. The enthusiasm of the Scots exceeded all his expectations: in six months, Paterson managed to raise 400 thousand pounds sterling - a huge amount for those times, equal to a third of the total aggregate capital of the entire nation. Almost every Scot who could afford it invested £5.

In 1698, the first batch of five ships set sail in the port of Leith and arrived at their destination in November of that year. Regrettably, the expedition turned out to be completely unprepared and ill-informed. The land that the Scots intended to turn into New Caledonia turned out to be an unsuitable swamp for agriculture, where mosquitoes swarmed. The Indians absolutely did not need stocks of wigs, mirrors and combs, with which the colonists hoped to trade with them. The English colonies located in the same areas were strictly forbidden to enter into trade relations with newcomers, and the Spaniards met the Scots as irreconcilable enemies.

Within six months, 200 of the 1200 settlers died from malaria and other tropical diseases, and the death rate reached ten people a day. In addition to the fact that the unfortunate had to bend their backs day and night to drain the swamp, all the provisions brought from their homeland quickly fell into disrepair, and by the beginning of summer there were no more than a pound of weekly supplies of gray flour eaten by larvae for each settler. Rumors of an impending Spanish attack were the last straw. Only 300 settlers managed to return to Scotland.

The Darien adventure ended in complete failure for Scotland, becoming a real national disaster. She not only undermined the morale of the Scots, but also left the country's economy in a huge debt - 250 thousand pounds. Seven years later, the country was forced to sign the "Act of Union with England." The Scots unanimously believed that the English had deliberately withheld their help in order to insult and humiliate Scotland and make union inevitable. The popularity of the Jacobite resistance in the next forty years can be safely linked to the horrors of the Panamanian expedition and the dashed hopes of the Scots.

As for Darien itself, it still remains a very inhospitable place, completely covered with dense jungle. Even the Pan-American Highway, meant to eventually connect Alaska and Argentina, breaks off at the Darien Gap.

Test your knowledge! Did you know...

▪ Why did telephone operators in San Francisco Chinatown have phenomenal memories?

▪ What was the last country that Scotland invaded?

▪ Which republics are separated only by a river and 2 hours of time difference?

See other articles Section Big encyclopedia. Questions for quiz and self-education.

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