I am a "rock hound" and have collected different specimens from Maine to Montana. I have Keokuck geodes from Iowa. I love finding them in nature most of all. Probably 90% of my collection I have found. I even have petoskey's from Michigan. Great video!
Have you found/seen the others in this Mineral Spotlight series? Here's the playlist of what has been done so far, and multiple others have been filmed and are soon to be edited... ua-cam.com/video/asnIz1hgME0/v-deo.html
Given its broad application, everyone should understand GEOLOGY - therefore this video has been indexed and a link added by DR-KNOW / iq-2k Information Services - roughly 850 videos have indexed for this series
Yes, there is a few scenes where Hank is shown to be collecting minerals. He mentions "blue corundum" which is also known as sapphire. Really, corundum can be almost any color depending upon what other metal ions are in the structure. When it is without such impurities (very rare) it is clear. Whenever it is any color other than red, it has been called "sapphire". Though we associate that term with blue corundum, there is "yellow sapphire", "green sapphire", or even "pink sapphire" if there is just a very small pink tinge to it. As pink becomes darker, on its way to red, the term "ruby" is usually used. Very red rubies are quite rare, and thus, much more valuable. Their value, though, is decreasing, as it becomes easier and more affordable to make synthetic ones that are even more flawless and deeper in the red color.
So...many...things! It depends upon the mineral, of course. But there's a very wide array of ways minerals are used by industry beyond some being used in jewelry. The number one application of them is that they are sources of elements, but they need to be chemically processed to produce those elements out of chemical reactions. For example, you and I live in Michigan, and in the UP, we do have some excellent copper mines. But, the majority of the world's copper actually comes from minerals such as chalcopyrite and bornite. Those two minerals get chemically reacted (processed) to produce elemental copper that can then be used for wiring and pipes and such. For this one, corundum, as mentioned in the video, industry will actually use small pieces of it in high grade sand paper, drill bits, belt sanders, grinding wheels, etc. This is due to corundum's hardness. It is an incredibly hard material, and thus, can grind/scratch other materials, such as steel. Since we can make corundum in laboratories, synthetic corundum is used much more often than natural corundum. Still, whether it's natural or synthetic, it's still the exact same chemical with the exact same properties. The only difference is that one version was made by the Earth, one version was made by humans in a lab setting.
The answer is yes, then no, then yes but not really. Have we ever tried to make the elements? Yes, and that's what part of "alchemy" was all about. Alchemy was around before Chemistry was. It was not science, but definitely a type of pseudoscience where little adherence to evidence was used. People had the idea that we *should* be able to turn less precious metals and other materials into more valuable ones like silver or gold. You can't blame them for thinking it was possible, for this was a time when people didn't exactly understand what chemical reactions were. We knew that sometimes we could mix two things together and they would produce a new chemical. Why not be able to mix two things together and produce something we wanted, like gold? It was worth a shot. But alchemy involved a lot of wild guesses (which were often wrong) and people fooling themselves often. In the end, nobody from that time period ever made any progress towards taking cheap materials and turning them into more valuable ones. Still, Chemistry owes a lot to alchemy, for the alchemists really did do a great job at developing a lot of the necessary tools and instruments for heating samples, crushing them up, filtering, etc. They really did the ground work in developing the equipment necessary for Chemistry to take the lead. That said, in general, everyday, normal situations, we will not be making elements any time soon. There is no chemical reaction that would allow us to "build" an element, as elements are the simplest materials we can have, chemically speaking. We can synthesize rubies, for they are the combination of aluminum and oxygen. But in the end, you must start with those elements. If we "make" copper from chalcopyrite or bornite, that copper was already there, just chemically locked in the mineral. Chemical reactions can be done to chemically separate the copper. But, we can't make copper appear out of nowhere, nor any element. Now, to be fully honest, if we step away from "normal" situations, when we have a nuclear reaction we *do* make new elements. A nuclear reaction involves the nucleus of an atom changing. If a nucleus splits, then the fragments are their own nuclei, with their own number of protons, and the number of protons is what causes an element to be the element it is. Any elements with more than 92 protons (so elements on the Periodic Table after Uranium) have all been man made in nuclear reactions. And with atom smashers that hurtle nuclei at each other to try and get them to fuse and/or fragment, we *do* make new atoms, or atoms of already known elements. So yes, we *can* make atoms of gold, for example... But the energy involved is tremendously more expensive than the few atoms of gold you'd get. Not even close to enough of them to be able to see. In the end, mankind won't be making significant amounts of gold or any other precious element in the near future. But this is a good thing, as it protects those metals' values. If we could make gold out of nowhere, the gold standard of many of our economies would falter and crash. This also means precious metals are a good way to lock up some of your money. You shouldn't dump tremendous amounts of money into precious metals (stock investments, and especially mutual funds are better), but some amount of money in precious metals protects your finances when the stock market takes a plunge. When stocks go down, precious metals tend to go up. While gem markets will continue to slowly go down as technology to synthesize them becomes more affordable and common, precious metals will be safe markets.
Beautiful Ruby corundum
I am a "rock hound" and have collected different specimens from Maine to Montana. I have Keokuck geodes from Iowa. I love finding them in nature most of all. Probably 90% of my collection I have found. I even have petoskey's from Michigan. Great video!
Thanks! If you're a rock hound, you're going to enjoy what's on the way...
Do you buy ruby?
Can someone please tell me what the smaller very deep red shiny specs are?
Cool!
hey more vids like this !
Have you found/seen the others in this Mineral Spotlight series? Here's the playlist of what has been done so far, and multiple others have been filmed and are soon to be edited...
ua-cam.com/video/asnIz1hgME0/v-deo.html
Given its broad application, everyone should understand GEOLOGY - therefore this video has been indexed and a link added by DR-KNOW / iq-2k Information Services - roughly 850 videos have indexed for this series
I remember this mineral from Breaking Bad lol
Yes, there is a few scenes where Hank is shown to be collecting minerals. He mentions "blue corundum" which is also known as sapphire. Really, corundum can be almost any color depending upon what other metal ions are in the structure. When it is without such impurities (very rare) it is clear. Whenever it is any color other than red, it has been called "sapphire". Though we associate that term with blue corundum, there is "yellow sapphire", "green sapphire", or even "pink sapphire" if there is just a very small pink tinge to it. As pink becomes darker, on its way to red, the term "ruby" is usually used. Very red rubies are quite rare, and thus, much more valuable. Their value, though, is decreasing, as it becomes easier and more affordable to make synthetic ones that are even more flawless and deeper in the red color.
MrLundScience Yeah. What else are minerals good for other then being beautiful?
So...many...things!
It depends upon the mineral, of course. But there's a very wide array of ways minerals are used by industry beyond some being used in jewelry. The number one application of them is that they are sources of elements, but they need to be chemically processed to produce those elements out of chemical reactions. For example, you and I live in Michigan, and in the UP, we do have some excellent copper mines. But, the majority of the world's copper actually comes from minerals such as chalcopyrite and bornite. Those two minerals get chemically reacted (processed) to produce elemental copper that can then be used for wiring and pipes and such. For this one, corundum, as mentioned in the video, industry will actually use small pieces of it in high grade sand paper, drill bits, belt sanders, grinding wheels, etc. This is due to corundum's hardness. It is an incredibly hard material, and thus, can grind/scratch other materials, such as steel. Since we can make corundum in laboratories, synthetic corundum is used much more often than natural corundum. Still, whether it's natural or synthetic, it's still the exact same chemical with the exact same properties. The only difference is that one version was made by the Earth, one version was made by humans in a lab setting.
MrLundScience So have we ever tried to make man made elements like copper, tungsten, Titanium, gold, silver, etc?
The answer is yes, then no, then yes but not really.
Have we ever tried to make the elements? Yes, and that's what part of "alchemy" was all about. Alchemy was around before Chemistry was. It was not science, but definitely a type of pseudoscience where little adherence to evidence was used. People had the idea that we *should* be able to turn less precious metals and other materials into more valuable ones like silver or gold. You can't blame them for thinking it was possible, for this was a time when people didn't exactly understand what chemical reactions were. We knew that sometimes we could mix two things together and they would produce a new chemical. Why not be able to mix two things together and produce something we wanted, like gold? It was worth a shot. But alchemy involved a lot of wild guesses (which were often wrong) and people fooling themselves often. In the end, nobody from that time period ever made any progress towards taking cheap materials and turning them into more valuable ones. Still, Chemistry owes a lot to alchemy, for the alchemists really did do a great job at developing a lot of the necessary tools and instruments for heating samples, crushing them up, filtering, etc. They really did the ground work in developing the equipment necessary for Chemistry to take the lead.
That said, in general, everyday, normal situations, we will not be making elements any time soon. There is no chemical reaction that would allow us to "build" an element, as elements are the simplest materials we can have, chemically speaking. We can synthesize rubies, for they are the combination of aluminum and oxygen. But in the end, you must start with those elements. If we "make" copper from chalcopyrite or bornite, that copper was already there, just chemically locked in the mineral. Chemical reactions can be done to chemically separate the copper. But, we can't make copper appear out of nowhere, nor any element.
Now, to be fully honest, if we step away from "normal" situations, when we have a nuclear reaction we *do* make new elements. A nuclear reaction involves the nucleus of an atom changing. If a nucleus splits, then the fragments are their own nuclei, with their own number of protons, and the number of protons is what causes an element to be the element it is. Any elements with more than 92 protons (so elements on the Periodic Table after Uranium) have all been man made in nuclear reactions. And with atom smashers that hurtle nuclei at each other to try and get them to fuse and/or fragment, we *do* make new atoms, or atoms of already known elements. So yes, we *can* make atoms of gold, for example... But the energy involved is tremendously more expensive than the few atoms of gold you'd get. Not even close to enough of them to be able to see.
In the end, mankind won't be making significant amounts of gold or any other precious element in the near future. But this is a good thing, as it protects those metals' values. If we could make gold out of nowhere, the gold standard of many of our economies would falter and crash. This also means precious metals are a good way to lock up some of your money. You shouldn't dump tremendous amounts of money into precious metals (stock investments, and especially mutual funds are better), but some amount of money in precious metals protects your finances when the stock market takes a plunge. When stocks go down, precious metals tend to go up. While gem markets will continue to slowly go down as technology to synthesize them becomes more affordable and common, precious metals will be safe markets.
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