Growing Crystals

[THugs]

My science experiment is to see which household objects form the best crystals. I have a few questions...#1.Does it matter if I grow the crystals in a light or dark area in my home? #2. Which chemical solution is easiest to work with (Alum or epsom salt)? #3. Should I use distilled water or is regular tap water OK? #4. Does the type of string I use really matter? and #5. How many household objects should I experiment on to have a good project?

[deleted-71625]

Hello THugs,
Thanks for your questions, sounds like you have given your project a lot of thought. Excellent!

Are you doing a project from this website? If so, which one?
Here are some similar projects than you can use: Crazy Crystal Creations. This sounds like a great one, similar to what you want to do: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p005.shtml

I'm a little confused by what you mean when you say: Household objects? What have you found in your research about how crystals are formed? What are the components you need to obtain crystals--solute? solution? saturation? Try looking up those terms. In the Crazy crustal creations, it explains some of these terms.

In answering #1: What information have you found in your research that would indicate or give you any clues as to what "conditions" are best for growing crystals?
Here are some websites to check out to find out more about crystals and crystal formation:
http://www.chemistry.co.nz/crystals_forming.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 140712.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal

Here is an overview on the whole process of doing a project. You can see examples of what other people have done and what it all 'means' https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml

#2:Which should be used? Alum or Epsom salt? It shouldn't really matter, although that could be a science project in itself: Which crystals grow the fastest? Here is an article of the most commonly used crystals for students. I haven't used all of them, so it will depend on what you have available or what is cheapest to buy.
http://chemistry.about.com/od/crystalsf ... ojects.htm
#3: Tap water should be fine, since it is the solute in the water that will be forming the crystals. The solution just needs to be oversaturated with the salts/crystals, etc.
#4: The type of string doesn't matter, it just needs to be something that the crystals can grab onto. I don't even think it has to be a string! Think about where crystals normally grow, what types of environments are those? What about salt ponds, have you ever seen those? They form on top of the ground.

Hope that helped you get started. Please post here again if you need more help or if anything I said confused you.

[deleted-315766]

My friend and I started growing crystals for our science fair, and they still havn't grown after 2 days. We did exactly what it told us.