Name: ________________________________
Introducing Minerals
Directions: Read, highlight, and then go to schoology.com to answer each question.
Re-introducing the Atom
Why am I starting with atoms when the title says minerals? Good question.
Basically, in order to understand minerals, we have to understand atoms.
Eventhough we have not seen an atom, we have been determining their
size based on smashing and colliding them in large machines called particle
colliders.
The atom is not very big. If we had a special ruler that
measured the diameter of an aluminum atom (just like
the ones holding my Diet Coke can together), we would
find out that it would measure 0.00000003 cm. That’s
100 million times smaller than a bouncy ball!
Because they are so small, we can pack lots of them into a tiny space. Take a penny for example. A penny
contains 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms – that’s 20 thousand billion billion atoms. Think about the
thickness of your hair. It’s over 300,000 atoms wide. We could go on and on until we eventually learn
there are lots of atoms in our world.
Not long after the discovery of the atom, it was found that it has different parts. The way this was
discovered is the way that most things are learned when dealing with really small particles. You smash
them into other really small particles and watch what happens.
The atom is found to have two parts: a tiny nucleus at the center, which contains a positive charge called
the proton and a neutral charged particle called the neutron, and the area around the nucleus, which
appears to have lots of empty space with negatively charged electrons flying around inside it.
Atoms vs. Elements
So why do we have 2 different names, atoms and elements? Basically, they are the same thing. The term
‘element’ only came around at the time the periodic table of elements was created. It is actually a table of
different kinds of atoms based on their characteristics, such as the number of electrons, protons, and
neutrons, and the atomic weight. However, the term element was used to point out a particular atom in
the periodic table. Wouldn’t it have been more enjoyable if they just called it the periodic table of atoms?
The Elements
Currently, there are 118 known elements listed on the periodic table with 94 of them naturally occurring on
Earth; the remainder is made in a laboratory by scientists. Easily stated, the only major difference between
each element is the number of protons, electrons, and neutrons starting with the simplest element,
Hydrogen, which has only 1 proton and 1 electron. As nature adds protons, electrons, and neutrons, the
elements change. As for everything you see and touch, all matter on earth is made up of at least one of
these elements.
Compounds and Molecules
Not to be confused with atoms and elements, the earth is loaded with combinations of atoms that create
new materials. Some are man-made, something scientists call synthetic, while others occur naturally.
Regardless of how they are made, they fall in to 2 categories, compounds and molecules.
Compounds occur when 2 or more different elements come together to form a new material. Molecules
occur when 2 or more elements come together to form a new material. Notice the “difference”? If there
are two or more different atoms, it’s both a molecule and a compound. If there are two or more of one
kind of atom, it’s just a molecule.
Such a minor difference but it does play a role at some point in chemistry. Examples of molecules that are
also compounds that you are familiar with would be water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). An example of
molecules that are not compounds comes from the air we breathe. Oxygen comes in the form O 2. Notice
how there is only the symbol “O” in this molecule.
Minerals
It took all of that to finally reach one of our new topics. What is a mineral? A mineral is a naturally
occurring, inorganic, element or compound with a definite chemical composition and regular crystalline
structure. Huh?
Let’s break that apart and put it in human terms.
1. That naturally occurring part is really important. Compounds that are man-made (synthetic) are not
minerals. That’s not to say they aren’t important, but they just are not minerals. Humans have learned
how to make plastic, but because it is made in a factory or lab, it isn’t a mineral. Minerals have to be
natural.
2. Inorganic has a special meaning in chemistry. Basically, it means it didn’t come from decaying
organisms. When things die, they decay. Think of where coal came from. It’s from decaying plants that
died millions of years ago. So coal is not inorganic (actually, we say coal is organic).
3. Based on our earlier discussion, you’ve already learned what elements and compounds are.
4. The crystalline structure part can be simplified into one idea. All minerals must be solid. For example,
the ice of a glacier is a mineral, but liquid water is not. It’s a little more complex than that, but for now,
the idea that it must be solid will work.
So for our world (as 6th graders), minerals can be thought of as naturally occurring, inorganic, solid
elements or compounds.
Go to schoology.com and answer a couple of questions about minerals.