I am taking chemistry and I am wondering what makes rocks different from gold, silver, and copper? Like the difference between minerals and those elements.
The other John has it right but there's something to clear up. Yes, feldspar and galena are minerals. They are pure compounds that form crystals. Like table salt is a pure compound - the mineral halite is table salt in nature. Rocks are ~mixtures of minerals~ by definition. Analogy: a fork is a mineral, a knife is a different mineral and a spoon is another, different mineral. Throw a handfull of each into a paper bag and shake it up, and that's a rock. By definition.
The difference is the properties of the material or the atomic structure. The wierd question is why does eg. One proton and zero neutrons make it a hydrogen atom caise its just a number of protons/neutrons.
Gold, silver, copper, platinum, iron, nickel are all elements; they are the simplest form of matter because they are composed of only one kind of atom. Rocks are materials that are composed of compounds; they have two or more different types of atoms united by chemical bonds into a single structure called a molecule. Pyrite, a mineral whose common name is 'fools gold', is composed of teh substance iron(II) sulfide FeS2. Another mineral, galena, is composed of lead(II) sulfide. Other rocks have much more complex formulas because they contain many kinds of atoms. One common mineral that composes over 60% of the Earth's crust is feldspar contains many kinds of atoms. Its called a 'potassium aluminosilicate' and has the general formula KAlSi3O8 - potassium , aluminum, silicon, and oxygen.
