Experiment ideas?????

[ohiogirl461]

Hey Everyone,

If your trying to dissolve gems for an experiment, how would you go about doing that? What type of gem and size would you use? If you have any better ideas of how to go about this please let me know.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

 

[RevolutionGems]

What is the ultimate goal of the experiment?

Some gem materials are suceptible to certain acids. Quartz will dissolve in hydroflouric acid but that stuff is super dangerous. Burns badly and also poisons the system. Deaths have resulted from a single drop on the skin.

Other gems, like calcite, are suceptible to less harsh acids like muriatic acid and even household vinegar.(Drop a piece of calcite in vinegar and it will bubble away, slowly dissolving)

It really depends entirely on what you are trying to achieve.

 

[ohiogirl461]

The goal of this experiment is to test the hardness of certain gems. I''m interested in seeing if the hardness of or even the chemical compound of the different gems are effected by certain liquids/ acids/ ect..... Any information you might have would be helpful to my experiment.


Thanks for the information you provided.

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 8/12/2008 12:51:36 AM
Author: ohiogirl461
The goal of this experiment is to test the hardness of certain gems. I'm interested in seeing if the hardness of or even the chemical compound of the different gems are effected by certain liquids/ acids/ ect..... Any information you might have would be helpful to my experiment.


Thanks for the information you provided.

Why on earth would you want to do this?

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Date: 8/12/2008 12:51:36 AM
Author: ohiogirl461
The goal of this experiment is to test the hardness of certain gems. I''m interested in seeing if the hardness of or even the chemical compound of the different gems are effected by certain liquids/ acids/ ect..... Any information you might have would be helpful to my experiment.


Thanks for the information you provided.

Get a few gemmology text books.

 

[arjunajane]

What you do, you put them in a package, address it to me, and put it into the post box.
I will give them a good home

(sorry I don't have an answer to your Q, just being a dork, lol)..

 

[ohiogirl461]

I''m doing this experiment purle for science. I''m just a curious individual.

I''m sure you would give them a great home.

I have no idea where to get the textbooks. All the ones i''ve looked at in the past just tell me where the gems are found a little history. Nothing else. Any ideas???

 

[Pandora II]

There is a thread at the top of the page with lists of books.

Frankly, if you are not a gemologist/mineralogist/chemist there is no point in doing this as you won't have the equipment necessary to make any of the measurements.

If you hunt around on the Internet, you'll probably find the answers to your questions anyway.

Seems a great way to waste a lot of money and some perfectly good gemstones to me. There are plenty of fun things to discover with gemstones without having to be destructive.

If you are really set on doing it, you might get some answers from gemology online, but more likely to get more people wondering why...

 

[ohiogirl461]

Alright, I have another question then, do you know of a better experiment that would be less destructive????

 

[Pandora II]

What exactly are you wanting to test? What equipment do you have available?

Is there specific information that you are searching for?

Is there a particular type of stone you wish to test?

If you just want information on hardness, or on possible effects of weathering, chemical attack etc on particular minerals you will probably find it all on the internet.

 

[ohiogirl461]

Thanks for all your help.

 

[RevolutionGems]

Acids and other materials won''t tell you anything about the hardness of a stone. Susceptibilty to acids, etc is based purely on the chemical structure of the gem. Hardness (not to be confused with toughness) is typically checked using the Mohs scale. Cartainly not as destructive as acids, you typically test a gems hardness by attempting to scratch it with various other materials of a known hardness. There are hardness testing kits available that could help out with that.

Any other information you can provide that will offer more details on what you are trying to achieve?

 

[ohiogirl461]

Yes, that helped a lot. Thanks