Quartz is a crystal that many

people know. It grows in six-sided

columns and can come in a range of
colors, depending on the chemical
impurities in it.

Crysta
ls
Crystals are often
used as decorative
objects and focal
points for meditation
and healing practices.

More basic information

All ionic compounds form
crystals.
Salts like to form crystals
because when you have a
But before we continue to the
whole bunch of little electrical
interesting facts, we need to
positive and negative charges
know the basics
all stuck together, they seem
What are ionic
to like to bunch into little
compounds?
stacking groups.
Ionic compounds are
Ionic compounds tend to
basically defined as being
have high melting and
compounds where two or
boiling points.
more ions are held next to
Most of the time, when you
each other by electrical
work with ionic compounds in
attraction.
a chemistry class, the melting
One of the ions has a
point is hot enough that you
positive charge (cation) and
can't melt them with a
the other has a negative
Bunsen burner.
charge (anion). Cations are
Ionic compounds are very
usually metal atoms and
hard and very brittle.
anions are either non-metals
Above, we said that it takes a
or polyatomic ions
lot of energy to break the
Think back to grade school:
positive and negative charges
The same thing that makes
apart from each other. This is
the reason that ionic

Crystal structure
In mineralogy and crystallography, a crystal structure is a unique
arrangement of atoms or molecules in a crystalline liquid or solid. A
crystal structure describes a highly ordered structure, occurring due
to the intrinsic nature of molecules to form symmetric patterns. A
crystal structure can be thought of as an infinitely repeating array of
3D 'boxes', known as unit-cells. The unit cell is calculated from the
simplest possible representation of molecules, known as the
asymmetric unit. The asymmetric unit is translated to the unit cell
through symmetry operations, and the resultant crystal lattice is
constructed through repetition of the unit cell infinitely in 3dimensions. Patterns are located upon the points of a lattice, which
is an array of points repeating periodically in three dimensions. The
lengths of the edges of a unit cell and the angles between them are
called the lattice parameters. The symmetry properties of the
crystal are embodied in its space group
A crystal's structure and symmetry play a role in determining many
of its physical properties, such as cleavage, electronic band
structure, and optical transparency.

Why women love

crystals
Women love money.
Jewelry represents
money. Women love
what crystals
represent.

Why women love

crystals

Lattice systems

These lattice systems are a grouping of crystal structures according to the axial system
used to describe their lattice. Each lattice system consists of a set of three axes in a
particular geometric arrangement. There are seven lattice systems. They are similar to
but not quite the same as the seven crystal systems and the six crystal families.

The 7 lattice
systems
(From least to

The 14 Bravais Lattices

most symmetric)

1. triclinic
(none)

simple

base-centered

simple

base-centered

2. monoclinic
(1 diad)

3. orthorhombic
(3 perpendicular
diads)

body-centered

facecentered

4. rhombohedral
(1 triad)

simple

body-centered

5. tetragonal
(1 tetrad)

6. hexagonal
(1 hexad)

simple (SC)

7. cubic
(4 triads)

body-centered (bcc face-centered (fcc

)