Granitetopia Encyclopedia

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Continuing our efforts to educate our customers, we built this knowledge database so that you can gain a better understanding of glossary related to natural stone products that we offer. Materials comes from the Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia. We hope you find this tool useful in your research.

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Crystal structureEncyclopedia Index



In mineralogy and crystallography, a crystal structure is a unique arrangement of atoms in a crystal. A crystal structure is composed of a unit cell, a set of atoms arranged in a particular way; which is periodically repeated in three dimensions on a lattice. The spacing between unit cells in various directions is called its lattice parameters. The symmetry properties of the crystal are embodied in its space group. A crystal's structure and symmetry play a role in determining many of its properties, such as cleavage, electronic band structure, and optical properties.