"My biggest fear is that when I die my next of kin will sell all my tools for what she thinks there worth. She probably wont realize we could of been rich but instead I spent the money all on tools"

Thats my facebook status tonight. I figured I would share that for those who don't follow me or are not on facebook.

I think that might fit several of us here.

Just like money in the bank...

Its not my tools so much, they'll claim them.

My concern is my mineral collection.  I'm afraid my posterity will just think my minerals are just a bunch of rocks.

Chilly

>my minerals are just a bunch of rocks.
Well.. Technically....

Interesting read.. I thought they were the same...  and they are still trying to figure it out..
A mineral is a naturally occurring substance that is solid and stable at room temperature, representable by a chemical formula, usually abiogenic, and has an ordered atomic structure. It is different from a rock, which can be an aggregate of minerals or non-minerals and does not have a specific chemical composition.

True enough. Many minerals are rocks, many rocks are minerals, but they are not quite the same as each other.
Sulfur is a mineral, but not a rock...

I was more into crystals myself in earlier days...

Minerals aren't rocks, but they often sit on rocks.  As an example, quartz, feldspar, and mica are minerals. But, mix them together and you have granite, a rock.  Basically minerals are one thing, while rocks are several of those things mixed together.

So your wifes diamond - rock or mineral?

Chilly


PS- it was a trick question.  Another part if the definition of a mineral is that it is naturally occuring.  A cut diamond is a gemstone.

Quote from: rusty on April 09, 2014, 04:53:20 PM
True enough. Many minerals are rocks, many rocks are minerals, but they are not quite the same as each other.
Sulfur is a mineral, but not a rock...

The difference is the same as the difference between a chemical compound and a mixture.  Mixtures may have different amounts of ingredients -- like "add water and stir."  One person's lemonade may have more or less lemon juice, more or less sugar, or if made for diabetics, a sugar substitute.  Regardless, lemon juice, water, and sweetener mixed together are lemon juice.  In compounds, on the other hand, always have identical amounts of elements held together by a molecular bond.  Water is always H2 O -- two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. 

There is no chemical bond between the minerals granite; the amounts of mica, orthoclase (feldspar) will vary from place to place.  Quartz, however, in whatever form, is always exactly SiO2.

Sedimentary
Meta-sedimentary
Igneous

Quote from: Branson on April 11, 2014, 07:09:44 AM
One person's lemonade may have more or less lemon juice, more or less sugar, or if made for diabetics, a sugar substitute.  Regardless, lemon juice, water, and sweetener mixed together are lemon juice. 

Oops!  Mixed together they are lemonade is what I meant to say.