 | "Mineral families....I have an Aunt Amythyst and an Uncle Rocko, but I guess that's not what you mean...!" |
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 | "Keerect, Lou! That's not what I mean! I'm talking about minerals that have their atoms arranged in the same way and have almost the same compositions! The result is you get minerals that have a strong resemblance and differ only in minor ways - like a family! Take a look below at the Feldspar and the Mica Families!" |
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| "The Feldspar Family has lots of members! I've only shown a few! They're all made of a constant component (aluminum plus silicon plus oxygen) plus a variable component (either potassium and/or sodium and/or calcium)! In the schematic diagrams, the constant component is represented by black dots; the variable component is represented by colored dots!" |
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| "You can see the pattern is the same for each member! And the composition is almost the same! What varies is the hue of the colored dots! Red for potassium; green for sodium; blue for calcium! Notice that one member has a mixture of green and blue! The result is that all the members of the Feldspar Family strongly resemble each other physically and chemically: they're all hard to scratch, break in a 'blocky' fashion, have similar density, are difficult to dissolve.... But may differ in their color and other features!" |
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| "And here's the Mica Family! Both biotite and muscovite break into flat, flaky pieces, and have other properties in common! But due to a small, but significant difference in one of the chemical components, their colors and electrical conductivity vary!" |
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| "They're kind of attractive! In a subtle way!!" |
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| "They are, Lou, they are!!" |
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