BY:PLOY

Lab Crystal Introduction

Without the existence of crystal, life would not be this easy. Crystals appear in

everyday life of human, for example, watches have quartz that located inside of it is needed

for keeping track of time. Crystals have orderly atomic arrangements in many ways that made

them have the different shapes. Most crystals do not have the perfect shape. This happens

because the growing rate of each spot of the crystal is not equal. The rate of some spots could

be slower or faster, which makes the sides uneven. Small crystals could increase in size if

there are atoms added to it. The solution that the crystal is in is unstable, this means that the

solution is trying to decrease the amount of solute in it. Then the extra solute would attract to

the crystal and make it bigger. There are two ways that crystals could form, they could form

by cooling of magma or from solution.

If one leaves a seed crystal in a supersaturated solution in normal condition, then the

crystal would form because the supersaturated solution is unstable and would push the copper

sulfate (solute) out and stick to the seed to form crystal. The process of crystal forming in

solutions also happen in nature too, such as recrystallization. Recrystallization is when the

crystals dissolve in high temperature. Then the solution would cool down and the crystals

will starting to form again. This experiment lets students see how the crystal formation is

solution happen. It also guides to understanding more about what unstable saturated solution

would react and how it becomes stable. The purpose of this experiment is from students to

understand how crystals are from and how it related to solutions.