Thursday 11 June 2009

Salty



Chemically, Salt is sodium chloride (NaCl). As package salt grains look like broken and/or deformed cubes. When dissolved and allowed to recrystalize, salt crystals take on a distinct pyramid shape the outline of which is sometimes faintly seen in the orginal "cubes".
http://www.3dham.com/microgallery/salt.html



Graphite is a fair conductor of electricity, while diamond is practically an insulator (stranger yet, it is technically classified as a semiconductor, which in its pure form acts as an insulator, but can conduct under high temperatures and/or the influence of impurities). Both graphite and diamond are composed of the exact same types of atoms: carbon, with 6 protons, 6 neutrons and 6 electrons each. The fundamental difference between graphite and diamond being that graphite molecules are flat groupings of carbon atoms while diamond molecules are tetrahedral (pyramid-shaped) groupings of carbon atoms.
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_12/1.html

Bucky balls are named after Buckminster Fuller, who popularized the geodesic dome. The shape defined by Bucky balls is also found in the Carbon 60 molecule, a form of pure carbon with 60 atoms in a nearly spherical configuration, the truncated icosahedron and soccer balls.
http://goldennumber.net/buckyball.htm

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