[Rockhounds] How to make Fluorite octahedra?

[Axel Emmermann]

Hi Johan,

Make sure you have the following at hand:

*	Fluorite chunks
*	children
*	A good solid legal insurance and representation
*	A hard surface to stand on... a tile or concrete floor is ideal.
*	The Boston "Pops" Philharmonic Orchestra

Children can break anything without EVER needing tools of any kind. So, why
should you give them tools whith which they can hurt themselves.
 
The trick is to tell the kids that you'll teach them how to make fluorite
float in the air NOT to make octahedra. Kids have no idea what octahedra
are. In fact don't care that much about octahedra. Octahedra are not edible.
 
You deploy the kids on the tile floor with their arms hands stretched
forwards, palms up and eyes closed.
You put a fluorite chunk on each handpalm and tell the victim, pardon, child
to concentrate on making it float... Plant the suggestion in their minds
that the rock gets lighter and lighter...
Whithout warning (this is important) have the Boston Pops play the first 8
bars of Aaron Copland's "Hoe-Down" at full strenght. You may need a large
closet or a curtain to hide the orchestra from the kids. Use your
imagination, it's only about a 100 musicians (You may want to stack the
contrabasses horizontally to save space).
 
Try to calm the children afterwards... Tell them that if they keep their
trauma to themselves you will not sue their parents for breaking your
precious fluorite.
 
Inspect the floor. There's bound to be an octahedral fragment among the
rubble.
 
No seriously, Johan, I have no idea how to go about that... 
 
Cheers
Axel

 

> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com
> [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] Namens Johan
> Verzonden: woensdag 18 juni 2008 0:14
> Aan: rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com; rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com
> CC: rockhounds-request at lists.drizzle.com
> Onderwerp: [Rockhounds] How to make Fluorite octahedra?
>
> How can I teach children in our club to make fluorite octahedra?
> I assume: get the right kind of fluorite, use some kind of
> rock splitter, right orientation etc.
> Have never tried it.
>
> --
>
> Johan Maertens
>    
> --
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