Minerals are found worldwide and have countless uses. The mineral gypsum, is just one of the thousands named. Gypsum has always been a critical mineral in the building of innumerable ancient constructions, and is still being used in today’s construction. (The History of Gypsum, 1985) It is speculated that the first use of it was in ancient Greece, where is was called “gypsos”, or “selenite”, but, gypsum’s first recorded usability was in Ancient Egypt, where it was used in the building of the Pyramids. They used the material called “Alabaster” (which is a form of gypsum), but later in the 18th century, they realized that gypsum in its natural and raw state, was much too wet, so they altered it to create the building material called “Plaster …show more content…
It is composed of two elements; oxygen and sulfur. This mineral can either be white in colour, gray, brown, orange, green, red, pink, yellow, beige, or it can be colourless, and the streak that it leaves is white. Based on the Moh’s Hardness scale, Gypsum falls somewhere around the 2 margin. Its lustre is close to that of glass (in properties and in appearance), and is considered vitreous. The cleavage—where it breaks along its line of weakness—is 1,1 – micaceous ; 2,2 and its fracture is uneven. Gypsum is slightly flexible, has low hardness, where it can be scratched by a fingernail, and is sectile (can be cut with a knife). Gypsum is a sedimentary rock, meaning it was formed by cementation at the surface of the Earth near bodies of water; it causes the mineral (gypsum) to settle within the …show more content…
Gypsum’s most common usage is for plaster (products) and gyprock—hence the beginning of the name (Minerals Education Coalition, n.d.). It is used as a soil additive because it makes the soil more workable and allows the moisture to settle and stay in the soil longer. It is found in drugs and cosmetics (as a colour additive) and it is also surprisingly a primary ingredient in toothpaste. Considering it is used in toothpaste and drugs, it is safe for consumption, and was “recognized as acceptable for human consumption by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration” (Gypsum Association, 2012). Gypsum is quite useful and some interesting facts about it is that it can be added to certain breads and doughs as a calcium source or as a type of baking additive considering that it is 100% safe for consumption. It can be used as a fire retardant, be used like modeling clay for teeth replacements, and so much more. It is a versatile mineral and has been around for thousands of years. Throughout the years, more uses for it have been found and the material is being utilized even more as the years progress. (Gypsum: the "Magic" Mineral Indefinitely Recyclable,
The authors talked about the two natural contexts that is used by prehistoric mud glyph artists: alluvial mud bank and thin clay veneers. The authors claim that they understand the used and the preservations of the alluvia...
It is unknown when people first knew about calcium and when people used compounds of calcium. Limestone is a compound of calcium and Limestone was usually used for buildings. The common name for limestone is calcium carbonate. Early Greeks and ancient Egyptians used mortar which was made from heated limestone. It was named for its natural occurrence in limestone with was a common building material, which in itself is an oxide of calcium with the molecular formula being CaCO3. The Latin name for limestone being calx, hence
First, alum possesses many medicinal remedies that can help people. Alum, (specially potassium ion), is used to treat and sanitize dirty water. While not tasteful yet effective, potassium alum had been used to treat water since their house flooded. Alum can also be used for its coagulant and healing properties, which help people with canker sores and other illnesses. Additionally, alum has artful and safety qualities. Alums can be found in flame retardants and pigments for art. Lastly and most unexpectedly, alum can be used for culinary purposes. Alum powder can be located in many recipes because it is used when pickling a vegetable and/or
The product will then be tested in acidic solutions to investigate the solubility of calcium hydroxyapatite. In biological system, hydroxyapatite dissolution increases in the environment where pH level is less than 7. As a result, less hydroxyapatite will be available for the formation of teeth and bones. To minimize the loss of
Arsenic is element 33 on the periodic table and is in Group 15. Arsenic is obviously an extremely poisonous element; however, some people have found arsenic to have a restorative effect on them. Chemically, arsenic is a metalloid. Two common forms of arsenic are gray and yellow. (see Figure 1-A) Element 33 has an atomic weight of 74.9216 and the chemical symbol of As. It boils at 613ºC, melts at 817ºC, and has a density of 5.72. (see Figure 2-A) The element has been known for centuries and can be easily obtained from ores such as arsenopyrite (FeAsS), realgar (As2S2), orpiment (As2S3), and arsenic trioxide (As2O3). There are many uses for arsenic. Among them is in the manufacturing of glass to eliminate the air bubbles and the green color caused by contaminated iron compounds. Arsenic is also added to materials such as lead and copper alloys to increase the strength and better the corrosion resistance. Although it is well known that arsenic is often used in tales (both true and otherwise) as a killing agent, arsenic has been used as a curative as well. Before penicillin was introduced, arsenic played a significant role in the treatment of syphilis. Other good uses for element 33 are as insecticides and semiconductors. Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a known semiconductor that is also used as a laser material. A good test for the detection of arsenic is the Marsh test, invented by James Marsh, an English chemist.
Mycenaean sites employed Cyclopean masonry as the means of building their fortification walls. Cyclopean masonry was used at all of the fortified Mycenaean sites and it is built by using large flat-surfaced blocks with smaller stones fitted in the cracks (Dickinson, 1994). The walls would have two faces and the space would then be filled with rubble. It is believed the fortification walls were not truly meant to fortify a citadel, but were a means of displaying the city’s wealth (Loader, 1995). According to Loader (1995) Cyclopean masonry was a distinct style of Greece. The use of corbelled vaults was also common. The Mycenaeans did not know the principle of the true arch so they stacked blocks on top of one another and pushed the ends of both sides in to create a sort of vault before creating a smooth interior surface. This method requires heavy weight on the backs of the blocks used to make the vault to avoid a collapse.
Building materials for housings in Roman and post-Roman times. Ward-Perkins begins by comparing the tiles used for roofing to pottery and how they were made in a similar process and sold like pottery. He discussed how tiles used in Roman times were common like pottery, and after post Roman time, the building material began to change, “. Every one of the building crafts introduced by the Romans, the mundane as well as the luxury ones, disappeared completely during the fifth century. All new buildings in the fifth and sixth centuries, whether in Anglo-Saxon or unconquered British areas, were either roofed in wood or thatch” (Ward-Perkins, 108).
Gypsum, an evaporite that accumulated when shallow inland seas got cut off from the oceans and evaporated out, is found in large quantities in Central and North Central parts of the state. Calcined gypsum, which has been heated in a kiln, is made into sheetrock and pllaster. Regular gypsum is used in Portland cement and as a fuel additive, amoung other things.
Feldspar and Olivine are two silicate minerals commonly found on the Earth’s surface, their chemical formulas are KAlSi3O8 – NaAlSi3O8 –CaAl2Si2O8 for feldspars and (Mg, Fe)2SiO4 for olivine. Olivine is a nesosilicate, whereas feldspars are a group of tectosilicates, both minerals are anhydrous, since they contain no water in their chemical structure. Feldspars hold differing quantities of different elements, such as potassium, calcium, and sodium; making them classifiable in terms of composition, for instance, NaAlSi3O8 is Albite, while CaAl2Si2O8 is referred to as Anorthite.
One very important piece of information is that gemstones and crystals are grown during the cooling, formative stages of Earth’s development and so it has lead me to the conclusion that they are gifts from nature. According to physics, gemstones and crystals consist of natural balances and solid sta...
- [3] ARNOLD, D, Building in Egypt, Pharaoic Stone Masonry, Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 159-160.
The performance of rock, under a particular condition depends upon physical and mechanical properties of rock materials. But we discuss only their physical properties here only. Physical properties are also called inherent properties or index properties, which describe the rock material and classify them which give information about the performance of rock material under different stress conditions. The different properties of rock depends on the size of rock mass On a megascale the structural properties of the rock mass, such as bedding,
The field of geology has many different branches. Some of these areas have hardly anything in common. The one thing that they all include, though, is that each one concentrates on some part of the Earth, its makeup, or that of other planets. Mineralogy, the study of minerals above the Earth and in its crust, is different from Petrology, the st...
Metallurgy is the field of materials science and material engineering that studies the physical and chemical behaviour of metallic elements, their microstructure compounds and their mixtures, which are mostly known as alloy. Metallurgy can be refers as the technology of metals where science is applied to the production of metals, and the engineering of metal components for the uses of products for consumers and manufacturers.
This is a supplement rich natural substance that can be added to soil to expand it's natural matter substance and accessible nutrients. A typical approach to utilize this procedure is to construct "worm receptacles"; essentially boxes that contain worms. Organic matter is added to the container for the worms to eat .