Minerals are used in everyday life and in almost everything we do. From the manufacturing of the plastic in our toothbrushes we use to brush our teeth in the morning, to the gasoline we put in our cars. Minerals touch our lives throughout the day and in many different ways. Fluorite is no exception. This mineral is used in so many different industries throughout the world and has been important to our daily lives in one form or another since its discovery which can be dated to prehistoric times. While it is not one of the most abundant minerals on the planet, it can be found in many different places and environments around the globe. What is fluorite though? What kind of environments does it exist in, and where can it be found today? What uses does such a common mineral have?
Fluorite was named by Carlo Antonio Galeani Napione in the year 1797. Through the years it has been known by many names, clax fluorata and spatum vitreum to name a few. Today we simply call it fluorite. Its name comes from the Latin word fluere, which means “to flow”, because of its low melting point when compared to other rocks and elements Napione collected with raw samples of fluorite. It is a halide mineral comprised of calcium and fluoride (CaF2). Small amounts of yttrium and cerium have been known to act as replacements for the calcium. Fluorite is in the isometric crystal system in the hexoctahedral class 4⁄m 3 ̅ 2⁄m which means it has a relatively high symmetry. It is usually found in cubic habit, though it can also be found as octahedral, dodecahedral, or massive aggregates. Penetration twinning is also common among fluorite crystals [INSERT PIC HERE].
It can come in a variety of colors such as violet, blue, green, yellow, brown, bluish-black, pink, ...
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...d the fact that it is widely displayed in museums. Many people will mistake purple fluorite for amethyst upon first glance. However, amethyst, purple quartz, is much harder and has a much different cleavage than fluorite.
It is funny to think that something dug out of the ground could be so important to daily life. Fluorite is an excellent example of just how important minerals really are to how we live. Without them, we would not have the plastics that make up parts of our cars and tablets. We would not have the glass and lenses that we use everyday via our smart phones. We would not even have the gasoline that we pump into our cars taking us away to different adventures each day. It will undoubtedly continue to play a significant role in our lives as we move forward, discovering new technology. We may yet find new uses fluorite just as we have done for centuries.
...nd violet wavelengths are the shortest, and violet is the least visible to the human eye. These wavelengths are scattered throughout the day and caused by a redirection of the light-waves direction due to gas molecules in the atmosphere (Mc Knight, p. 84). When the sun is setting towards the end of the day there are few blue wavelengths left and we see orange and red which are dominant and the longest wavelengths of visible light to the human eye. At the bottom of the photo (closest to the setting sun) red and orange are the dominant visible colors with the occasional blue and almost violet. If our eyes could not see orange and red our sunsets would be a dark blue or black.
According to recent statistics, zinc is the third most commonly used nonferrous metal in the United States. This unassuming metal was among the first minerals exploited by Man, used as a decorative material for thousands of years, although it never achieved the fame and notoriety of other metals such as gold or silver. In more recent times, new extraction and processing methods have allowed Man to produce higher-quality zinc than ever before, and to use it in an astonishingly high number of chemical and high-tech applications.
Michael, Douma. "Prussian Blue and Vermillion." Pigments Through Ages. Institute for Dynamic Educational Development, 2008. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
In order to understand the controversy of fluoride, one must know the background . Fluoride is the ionic form of the element fluorine, an element abundant in the earth's crust (Borso 23). Fluoride is shown that is
Tooth enamel is a hard mineral substance that covers your teeth. Without this special coating, your teeth will decay and erode. In fact, mineral is found inside your body, especially in your bones. This is the same chemical makeup that you can expect to find in large mammals like whales. If you read on, you’ll find that the main ingredient in mineral is hydroxyapatite, a ceramic biomaterial made of calcium phosphate.
Salt is made up of sodium and chlorine and it is a natural occurrence on our planet, it can be found and harvested mainly from the seas, oceans or salt lakes. However salt can also be mined from within the earth from dried up underground seas, normally it’s only used as road salt (maldonsalt). The product salt has multiple functions, Salt is used to preserve foods and also to flavor foods, salt can also be used as a stabilizer in water and rock salt is used to melt ice during the winter (Freeman, 2007).
Nickel is one of the most important elements on the periodic table. It has plenty of history, as well as a huge importance to society. Its has unique chemical, physical, and geological properties. Nickel is used commercially in abundance, as it is used anywhere from simple art products such as ceramics to complex structures such as tubing for desalination plants. It is even used in the American five-cent coin, the "nickel".Nickel was discovered by Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, in Sweden, during the year 1751.
Iron is the fourth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Because it is so common, iron has been used by human society for thousands of years. Iron was known and used for weapons in prehistoric ages, the earliest example still in existence; a group of rusty iron beads found in Egypt, dates from about 4000BC. This period in history was given the name Iron Age because it was the time when people found ways to get iron and to use it for building tools and weapons.
When the benefits of minerals to our health are being discussed, most of the emphasis seems to be on bulk minerals like calcium and iron. It is unfortunate because our good health indeed depends on getting plenty of a wide array of minerals. Magnesium is a mineral that does not receive enough attention. It means that most people today could be benefited by a supplementing their diet with magnesium.
Since our health is controlled by our diet, we highly need to consider the type of food we consume. Most of us shop for food that is tasty, but not necessarily healthy. Most our food today has a large amount of fat, salt, and other ingredients that can be unhealthy.
On the internet I was able to find out the numbers of red and yellow
Hue is the common name for the colours in the spectrum which are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. A pigment is a colouring ag...
The field of geology has many different branches. Some of these areas have hardly anything in common. The one thing that they all include, though, is that each one concentrates on some part of the Earth, its makeup, or that of other planets. Mineralogy, the study of minerals above the Earth and in its crust, is different from Petrology, the st...
Nearly every person in the world uses salt or some form of a salt as there are many salts in the world. In America alone we use a lot of salt every day we are one of the top salt using countries in the world. Salt has a part in many things in everyone’s daily lives. Salt has many important things to it such as its crystallization, what salt is and ammonia.
This non-toxic mineral can be helpful to humans, animals, plant life, and the environment. While the majority of gypsum produced in North America is used to manufacture gypsum board or building plasters Natural gypsum, occurs in sedimentary rock formations, and is found in over 85