A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an ordered pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. In addition to their microscopic structure, large crystals are usually identifiable by their macroscopic geometrical shape, consisting of flat faces with specific, characteristic orientations.
The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography. The process of crystal formation via mechanisms of crystal growth is called crystallization or solidification. The word crystal is derived from the Ancient Greek word κρύσταλλος (krustallos), meaning both “ice” and “rock crystal”, from κρύος (kruos), "icy cold, frost".
Common crystals include snowflakes, diamonds, and table salt; however, most common inorganic solids are polycrystals. Crystals are often symmetrically intergrown to form crystal twins.
Read more about Crystal: Crystal Structure (microscopic), Crystal Faces and Shapes, Polymorphism and Allotropy, Crystallization, Defects, Impurities, and Twinning, Chemical Bonds, Quasicrystals, Special Properties From Anisotropy, Crystallography, Gallery
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... When Crystal Palace was founded they asked Aston Villa for help in setting up the club, Villa offered Palace Goodman and he helped to appoint the first manager and found the first Chairman ... After two seasons he became manager and remained so for 23 years, becoming Crystal Palace's longest serving manager in the process ... be said to be the founding father of Crystal Palace F.C ...
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... A crystal dendrite is a crystal that develops with a typical multi-branching tree-like form ... Dendritic crystal growth is very common and illustrated by snowflake formation and frost patterns on a window ... Dendritic crystals can form from growth instabilities that occur when the growth rate is limited by the rate of diffusion of solute atoms to the interface ...
... County Schools serve the McKinley County portion of Crystal ... The portion of Crystal in San Juan County is served by Central Consolidated Schools ...
Famous quotes containing the word crystal:
“It is crystal clear to me that if Arabs put down a draft resolution blaming Israel for the recent earthquake in Iran it would probably have a majority, the U.S. would veto it and Britain and France would abstain.”
—Amos Oz (b. 1939)
“But the thing that I saw in your face
No power can disinherit:
No bomb that ever burst
Shatters the crystal spirit.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“I waited alone, in the company of orchids, roses and violets who—like people waiting beside you, but to whom you are unknown—maintained a silence which their individuality of living things rendered more imposing and in their chilly manner received the heat from an incandescent coal fire, preciously placed behind a crystal glass, in a white marble tub where it dropped, from time to time, its dangerous rubies.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)