Crystals aren't mysterous.

A crystal is just a solid with a regular, simply describable, arrangement of atoms. Many gemstones are crystals, but so is the silicon chip inside your computer, the clear "glass" on some watch faces (synthetic sapphire == crystalline aluminum oxide), and the quartz oscillator in watches is a small piece of quartz crystal (quartz == crystalline silicon dioxide). Crystals are simpler to understand than other materials because they're regular (e.g. compare a detailed physical description of a salt crystal with a sample of concrete).

And various books about the piezo and pyro electric effects of crystals.

A piezoelectric crystal is one that has the property that a change in dimension of the crystal results in a build-up of a voltage on the crystal. It works in reverse as well - applying a voltage to it will change the dimensions. The effect is due to changes in chemical bond lengths in the material as a result of stress or electric field. There are also piezoelectric materials that aren't crystalline. [link|http://thorlabs.com/Navigation.cfm?Guide_ID=82&Visual_ID=1906&GoogleAdWords=1&camp=USA&Keyword=Piezoelectric%20Actuator|Piezo Actuators] work on this principle. A voltage applied causes a change in dimensions and thus movement.

Pyroelectric materials are those that have a charge build-up as a result of a temperature difference across it. It's also related to changes in bond lengths in the material. In general, pyroelectric materials are also piezoelectric.

You probably have some of these piezoelectric and pyroelectric crystals in your home right now. Quartz is piezoelectric. Also, do you have a white LED flashlight? White LEDs (and blue LEDs and many other colors) are made from gallium nitride (GaN) crystals. GaN is pyroelelectric and piezoelectric.

One of the reasons why [link|http://skepdic.com/crystals.html|it's hard for skeptics to believe that crystals can have any effect] approaching those claimed by advocates is that the electric field is so small outside the crystalline material. Any crystal field would be swamped by other fields in the environment (probably including natural electric fields in our bodies).

Enjoy your reading, but be skeptical! :-)

Cheers,
Scott.

Post #290,633 by Another Scott 8/11/07 10:54:14 AM Reply	Crystals aren't mysterous. A crystal is just a solid with a regular, simply describable, arrangement of atoms. Many gemstones are crystals, but so is the silicon chip inside your computer, the clear "glass" on some watch faces (synthetic sapphire == crystalline aluminum oxide), and the quartz oscillator in watches is a small piece of quartz crystal (quartz == crystalline silicon dioxide). Crystals are simpler to understand than other materials because they're regular (e.g. compare a detailed physical description of a salt crystal with a sample of concrete). And various books about the piezo and pyro electric effects of crystals. A piezoelectric crystal is one that has the property that a change in dimension of the crystal results in a build-up of a voltage on the crystal. It works in reverse as well - applying a voltage to it will change the dimensions. The effect is due to changes in chemical bond lengths in the material as a result of stress or electric field. There are also piezoelectric materials that aren't crystalline. [link\|http://thorlabs.com/Navigation.cfm?Guide_ID=82&Visual_ID=1906&GoogleAdWords=1&camp=USA&Keyword=Piezoelectric%20Actuator\|Piezo Actuators] work on this principle. A voltage applied causes a change in dimensions and thus movement. Pyroelectric materials are those that have a charge build-up as a result of a temperature difference across it. It's also related to changes in bond lengths in the material. In general, pyroelectric materials are also piezoelectric. You probably have some of these piezoelectric and pyroelectric crystals in your home right now. Quartz is piezoelectric. Also, do you have a white LED flashlight? White LEDs (and blue LEDs and many other colors) are made from gallium nitride (GaN) crystals. GaN is pyroelelectric and piezoelectric. One of the reasons why [link\|http://skepdic.com/crystals.html\|it's hard for skeptics to believe that crystals can have any effect] approaching those claimed by advocates is that the electric field is so small outside the crystalline material. Any crystal field would be swamped by other fields in the environment (probably including natural electric fields in our bodies). Enjoy your reading, but be skeptical! :-) Cheers, Scott.
Post #290,635 by Andrew Grygus 8/11/07 12:09:27 PM Reply	Crystals have their secrets too. I read that during WWII, due to shortage of quartz, fluorite was used for oscillator control crystals. Sometime after the war a lab, I think in Germany, wasn't able to get these crystals to work. Samples were sent from lab to lab and soon nobody could get fluorite to work any more. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #290,636 by pwhysall 8/11/07 1:40:02 PM Reply	Link? Sounds like utter bollocks to me, but I like a good ghost story. Peter [link\|http://www.no2id.net/\|Don't Let The Terrorists Win] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes! [link\|http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?pwhysall\|A better terminal emulator] [image\|http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h262/pwhysall/Misc/saveus.png\|0\|Darwinia\|\|]
Post #290,639 by Andrew Grygus 8/11/07 2:12:21 PM Reply	Re: Link? I read that in a science article probably about 1964. Hardly anything from that era is on the Internet yet (at least nothing I've ever tried to find). [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #290,648 by Another Scott 8/11/07 7:29:11 PM Reply	A related history is here. Like you, I find it frustrating that so much pre-1990s information isn't at our fingertips. :-) Just to add a little more to the story: [link\|http://www.ieee-uffc.org/fc_history/bottom.html\|A HISTORY OF THE QUARTZ CRYSTAL INDUSTRY IN THE USA], from 1981. It mentions shortages of natural quartz, and German efforts in artificial quartz. It's a good article, but doesn't mention efforts in other materials in any detail. The author closes with the hope that someone will fill in the details in areas he touches on. Cheers, Scott.

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