Challenge

Build Diamond Lattices

Photo of Joseph Asscher carefully striking the Cullinan Diamond to cleave it in to smaller stones
Joseph Asscher carefully cleaving the Cullinan Diamond in to smaller stones for later finishing. From Joseph Asscher's self-published book "The Cullinan" hosted at the Internet Archive

Build a tetrahedral network modeling the atomic structure of diamond.

  • What is a unit cell, What does the diamond unit cell look like? Who discovered the structure of diamond and what new technology was used?
  • Where are most diamonds mined? What are conflict-free diamonds? What are diamond pipes?
  • How does the structure of diamond affect its physical properties? What is refractive index?
  • What are the 4 Cs, fire, brilliance and scintillation?
  • Who is Joseph Asscher? What is the story of the Cullinan Diamond? Where can you see it now?
  • What are synthetic diamonds? How are they made? What are they used for?
  • Where might you encounter diamond rain?

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