BrightKidz Library
Subjects
Flat faces outside, one repeating pattern inside On the left a cluster of crystals grows out of a chunk of rock, each one leaning at its own angle rather than standing straight up, and each buried at the foot so none of them sits on a flat line. Every crystal is a many-sided column: you can see three of its flat faces at once, meeting along sharp edges, and each column ends in a short pointed cap. A dashed line leads from a face of the biggest crystal across to a magnifying glass on the right. Inside the lens is what those flat faces are made of: rows and rows of small dots joined to their neighbours in exactly the same arrangement, repeated over and over.

Unveiling the Wonders of Crystals

About 3 minutes

Crystals are some of the most orderly objects on Earth. Their flat faces and sharp edges are not carved by anyone — they come from the way the crystal is built, right down at the level of its atoms.

What is a crystal?

A crystal is a solid whose atoms are arranged in a neat, repeating pattern — the same small arrangement, copied over and over in every direction, like a perfectly organized LEGO castle.

That repeating pattern is what gives a crystal its shape. The flat faces you can see with your eyes are the outside of a pattern far too small to see.

Colors and shapes

Crystals come in every color:

And in different shapes. Some are long and pointed, some short and stubby. The shape depends on how the atoms are arranged inside, so two crystals of the same mineral tend to grow into the same sort of shape.

How a crystal grows

  1. Something hot cools down. It might be magma deep underground, or water with minerals dissolved in it.
  2. Atoms start to settle into place. As it cools, atoms lock into the repeating pattern, one layer at a time.
  3. The crystal grows outwards. Layer after layer joins the pattern. Given long enough — often a very long time — the crystal becomes big enough to see.

The longer a crystal has to grow, the bigger it gets.

Try this

Look for crystals near you before you go looking for treasure. A grain of table salt is a crystal — tip some onto dark paper and look closely, and you will see tiny cubes. Sugar is a crystal too.

Once you know what to look for, you will start seeing that repeating pattern everywhere.