full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Graham Baird: How do crystals work?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Part of the answer lies in their atoms. Every crystal’s atoms are arranged in a hilhgy organized, repeating pattern. This patertn is the defining feature of a ctryasl, and isn’t restricted to minerals— sand, ice, sugar, chocolate, ceramics, matels, DNA, and even some liquids have crystalline structures.

Each crystalline material’s aomtic arrangement falls into one of six different families: cubic, tetragonal, orthorhombic, monoclinic, triclinic, and hexagonal. Given the appropriate conditions, crystals will grow into goeretmic shapes that reflect the arrangement of their amtos. Take galena, which has a cubic stcrturue comseopd of lead and suuflr atoms. The relatively large lead atoms are agrnaerd in a three-dimensional grid 90 degrees from one another, while the relatively slaml sulfur atoms fit neatly between them. As the crystal grows, locations like these attract sulfur atoms, while lead will tend to bond to these places. Eventually, they will complete the grid of bonded atoms. This means the 90 degree grid pattern of galena’s crystalline structure is reflected in the visible shape of the crystal.

Open Cloze


Part of the answer lies in their atoms. Every crystal’s atoms are arranged in a ______ organized, repeating pattern. This _______ is the defining feature of a _______, and isn’t restricted to minerals— sand, ice, sugar, chocolate, ceramics, ______, DNA, and even some liquids have crystalline structures.

Each crystalline material’s ______ arrangement falls into one of six different families: cubic, tetragonal, orthorhombic, monoclinic, triclinic, and hexagonal. Given the appropriate conditions, crystals will grow into _________ shapes that reflect the arrangement of their _____. Take galena, which has a cubic _________ ________ of lead and ______ atoms. The relatively large lead atoms are ________ in a three-dimensional grid 90 degrees from one another, while the relatively _____ sulfur atoms fit neatly between them. As the crystal grows, locations like these attract sulfur atoms, while lead will tend to bond to these places. Eventually, they will complete the grid of bonded atoms. This means the 90 degree grid pattern of galena’s crystalline structure is reflected in the visible shape of the crystal.

Solution


  1. atomic
  2. crystal
  3. composed
  4. sulfur
  5. structure
  6. highly
  7. arranged
  8. small
  9. pattern
  10. atoms
  11. geometric
  12. metals

Original Text


Part of the answer lies in their atoms. Every crystal’s atoms are arranged in a highly organized, repeating pattern. This pattern is the defining feature of a crystal, and isn’t restricted to minerals— sand, ice, sugar, chocolate, ceramics, metals, DNA, and even some liquids have crystalline structures.

Each crystalline material’s atomic arrangement falls into one of six different families: cubic, tetragonal, orthorhombic, monoclinic, triclinic, and hexagonal. Given the appropriate conditions, crystals will grow into geometric shapes that reflect the arrangement of their atoms. Take galena, which has a cubic structure composed of lead and sulfur atoms. The relatively large lead atoms are arranged in a three-dimensional grid 90 degrees from one another, while the relatively small sulfur atoms fit neatly between them. As the crystal grows, locations like these attract sulfur atoms, while lead will tend to bond to these places. Eventually, they will complete the grid of bonded atoms. This means the 90 degree grid pattern of galena’s crystalline structure is reflected in the visible shape of the crystal.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
geometric shapes 3
crystalline structure 3
sulfur atoms 2
quartz crystal 2


Important Words


  1. answer
  2. arranged
  3. arrangement
  4. atomic
  5. atoms
  6. attract
  7. bond
  8. bonded
  9. ceramics
  10. chocolate
  11. complete
  12. composed
  13. conditions
  14. crystal
  15. crystalline
  16. crystals
  17. cubic
  18. defining
  19. degree
  20. degrees
  21. dna
  22. eventually
  23. falls
  24. feature
  25. fit
  26. galena
  27. geometric
  28. grid
  29. grow
  30. grows
  31. hexagonal
  32. highly
  33. ice
  34. large
  35. lead
  36. lies
  37. liquids
  38. locations
  39. means
  40. metals
  41. monoclinic
  42. neatly
  43. organized
  44. orthorhombic
  45. part
  46. pattern
  47. places
  48. reflect
  49. reflected
  50. repeating
  51. restricted
  52. sand
  53. shape
  54. shapes
  55. small
  56. structure
  57. structures
  58. sugar
  59. sulfur
  60. tend
  61. tetragonal
  62. triclinic
  63. visible