Discuss the three laws of crystallography.

Short Answer

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The three laws of crystallography are: Law of Constancy of Interfacial Angles - angles between the corresponding faces of crystals of the same substance are always the same, Law of Rational Indices - the intercepts made by a crystal face along the crystallographic axes are always small whole numbers, and Law of Symmetry - the properties of crystals are the same in all directions that are symmetric.

Step by step solution

01

Discussion of Law of Constancy of Interfacial Angles

The Law of Constancy of Interfacial Angles states that the angles between the corresponding faces of crystals of the same substance are always the same, irrespective of the size and form of the crystals. It's one of the fundamental laws of crystallography that signifies the ordered arrangement of atoms in a crystal.
02

Discussion of Law of Rational Indices

The Law of Rational Indices (also known as Miller’s law) relates to the crystal faces and axes. It states that the intercepts made by a crystal face along the crystallographic axes, when expressed in terms of a fractional multiple of the unit cell edges, will always reduce to a set of small whole numbers. These small whole numbers are known as Miller indices and are useful in predicting the orientation of crystal faces.
03

Discussion of Law of Symmetry

The Law of Symmetry asserts that the properties of crystals are the same in all directions that are related to each other by symmetry operations such as rotation around an axis, reflection in a plane, inversion about a point, etc. This law helps to classify crystals into 32 crystal classes based on their symmetry.

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