Inside Quartz

Most recent answer: 10/22/2007

Q:
What are the major molecules that make up quartz?
- colin sweet (age 12)
denver, co
A:
Quartz is made up of silicon dioxide. That means that for every silicon atom, there are 2 oxygen atoms. What makes the molecules is quartz different than the molecules in a liquid is their crystal structure.

Crystals and interesting because they are a special type of solid. Each of the molecules inside the crystal line up in a certain order. A good example for things about this is a box of crayons. If you just dump the crayons into the box, you won’t get too many in. But if you line them up nicely, you’ll be able to put them all back in.

Adam

(published on 10/22/2007)