A Conversation for Chalcedony - an Holistic View
Typo?
Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) Started conversation Nov 19, 2002
"Crystal System Trigonal" - should that be "Triagonal"? That would probably be inaccurate anyway, as it suggests a 2D lattice, while it is in fact 3D. A quick Googling (ooh, err, missus) suggests "Crystal system: Tetrahedral" would be more accurate. 
Typo?
Sam Posted Nov 19, 2002
According to the Oxford Dictionary, 'trigonal' is fine. As far as 'Tetrahedral' is concerned I'm afraid I don't know enough about the subject to warrent my replacing the word 'trigonal'. Let's leave it as it is and see if I get jumped on from a great height or not. 
Typo?
Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) Posted Nov 19, 2002
Sounds reasonable; I don't know that much about it either. I had time on my hands last night, so I Googled it, and "Tetrahedral" was the only description of the crystalline structure I could spot; I certainly didn't see "Trigonal"... If nobody else complains chances are it's not a problem... 
Ah... Silly me... I just checked Dictionary.com, and apparently Trigonal is a specialised term used in crystallography for anything with three-fold symmetry, which is why I didn't recognise the word last night. Sorry. 
Worth a footnote? 
Typo?
ChiKiSpirit -- A1008604 Posted Nov 20, 2002
Hello Sam and Peet
Here are the definitions of the two words you were discussing:
Tetragonal: three axes which are right angles to each other. Two on the same plane are = in length while the third is perpendicular to this plane and of different length.
Trigonal: similar to the hexagonal system there are three axes at 60 degrees to each other in the same plane. The fourth axis is perpendicular. There are three planes of symmetry.
(to be perfectly honest, that is all a bit too scientific for me, I prefer the spiritual aspect of the crystals myself)
Can't find my book with definition of Tetrahedral in it at the moment, and I can't remember the answer either.
I hope that has been helpful
CKS 
Typo?
Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) Posted Nov 20, 2002
Good afternoon, Sam!
And CKS, the word I introduced was Tetrahedral, not Tetragonal. It means "shaped like a pyramid with a triangular base"...
Typo?
ChiKiSpirit -- A1008604 Posted Nov 20, 2002
shaped like a pyramid with a triangular base? what crystal would that be I wonder?
Did you know that tera means 4? and hydra means water?
Typo?
Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) Posted Nov 20, 2002
In this context, the "4" part means "4 faces"...
Typo?
Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) Posted Dec 16, 2002
I had queried the description of the shape of the crystal structure in the text of the article, wrongly as it turns out...
Key: Complain about this post
Typo?
- 1: Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) (Nov 19, 2002)
- 2: Sam (Nov 19, 2002)
- 3: Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) (Nov 19, 2002)
- 4: ChiKiSpirit -- A1008604 (Nov 20, 2002)
- 5: Sam (Nov 20, 2002)
- 6: Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) (Nov 20, 2002)
- 7: ChiKiSpirit -- A1008604 (Nov 20, 2002)
- 8: Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) (Nov 20, 2002)
- 9: ChiKiSpirit -- A1008604 (Dec 16, 2002)
- 10: Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) (Dec 16, 2002)
More Conversations for Chalcedony - an Holistic View
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."