Crystals: Building patterns with randomness

[@tk423b]

My mineralogy professor could have played this video in the first lecture and saved himself a lot of trouble.

[@TheDBZ_KING7_Official]

"They're rocks, hank."

[@Tatedeltaco]

If professors just used KZbin videos then people would question of the legitimacy of their education

[@mandelabrein8116]

@@Tatedeltaco youtube is a great educational tool. I've spent 100s of hours watching lectures from actual college professors and other science educators like this wonderful channel. I would not question a professor's credibility if they used youtube to enhance their curriculum

[@V1ctoria00]

@@Tatedeltaco yeah I never trust a carpenter who uses the tools available to build minds into society. I would hate it if someone explained something perfectly and I found out because a human I was told to trust imperically showed me the record. Like when they show you a video about science and mitochondria. What a sham. You fool.

[@BearerOfLightSonOfGod]

Dude I read that wrong the first time I thought is said my Minecraft professor could have played this.

[@silvertooth32]

Explaining the 3d reaction with a 2d magnet model was really awsome, everything makes sense now, why energy is needed and how size makes all the difference, the channel is highly underrated.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Glad you liked it! Crystals are fun

[@Glooooooooed]

"Size makes all the difference" Haha that's what she said

[@baxter1910]

couldn't agree more

[@Palladiumavoid]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel meth

[@auxchar]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel Yeah, the agetation with a motor is a very good analog for temperature.

[@GarryDumblowski]

"let's just make the blue disks twice as big" makes them four times as big

[@za1231in]

fuckin gottem

[@jaredf6205]

Probably meant twice the radius.

[@GarryDumblowski]

@@jaredf6205 I know, don't worry.

[@xymaryai8283]

i was thinking about that when he did it, volumetrically or radially

[@jjones503]

🤣 this is chemistry, not math class! :p

[@unusualfabrication9937]

I would love to see the 3d simulation with differently sized particles other than a 1:1 ratio

[@gustavowadaslopes2479]

Also, different shapes, such as elipses

[@za1231in]

@@gustavowadaslopes2479 particles are approximated using spheres, so an ellipsoid prob wouldn't be as neat

[@xenontesla122]

@@za1231in The attractive/repulsive forces between atoms can actually form some really strange shapes, which is part of why there are so many types of crystal arrangements. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_orbital

[@nikkiofthevalley]

I actually tried this, but my horrible physics simulation just exploded when the particles were larger or smaller than unit size...

[@coolguyflex]

This is awesome. You take something so simple on the surface, show why it's really not simple and then explain it in an intuitive way!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

”I don't know anything, but I do know that everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough.” - Feynman

[@zhinkunakur4751]

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel 🌚 does that apply to human intercourse ?

[@iQKyyR3K]

Damn, you've been popping off recently explaining everything as "energetically favourable or not" feels like it applies to almost every field. Chemistry, Physics, even Computer Science: if code is complicated it's more likely to break.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

I think about a LOT of problems with very hand-wavey thermo logic… 😬👐

[@dionyzus2909]

Yeah applies to many fields, even pseudo-fields, if you know what i mean

[@jannikheidemann3805]

Entropy is a very basic concept everyone should understand.

[@R23874]

I've been interested in the "science side of KZbin" for over a decade. This is sincerely one of the best videos I've ever seen on this topic. You have such a great channel and I'm so glad I discovered it today.

[@ceterfo]

I would like to not only thank you but the University or institution that allowed you to film with their equipment and their samples. I am very appreciative.

[@azericthetraveller6355]

I love how this brought me to understand the reason without telling me. It showed, via the 2d diagrams, how the lattice forms. I was thinking about why the rules would cause this, and how circles and squares tile, when I realized that circles tile like squares because squares have the least distance between the opposite colors, but the most distance between the same color.

[@colesheets135]

"look at this beautiful quartz" *deafining KSP music*

[@Rhannmah]

8:59 "if they happen by random chance to form a really stable pattern and requires a lot of energy to break up, they are more likely to stay in that arrangement" This is important. This simple sentence allowed me to instantly grasp the concept of lowest energy state. It's not that things in nature seek the lowest energy state, it's that they can't escape it if they randomly stumble upon it. Suddenly, lowest energy state makes sense.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

SO MANY THINGS do this. It’s like my favorite way to think about problems. I use “energetically expensive” to describe map districts in my most recent video

[@tissuepaper9962]

Thermodynamics, not just a good idea.

[@mbrusyda9437]

@@tissuepaper9962 statistical mechanics; usually used to explain the micro scale of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics itself only care about the macro scale.

[@LostFromLight166]

You made me reopen university books for the first time in years. You may not get how amazing of an achievement this is, but all I can do is thank you! Great work!

[@BrodieEaton]

It only takes a smart person to explain a complicated subject to another smart person. It takes a genius to explain that same subject to an average person. I'm seriously very happy that your channel is beginning to show up in my and other people's recommended. Amazing content and amazing communication.

[@tiagopadua]

THANK YOU for not saying that the atoms "want" to arrange that way. I hear too much of that and I think it's wrong to say things "want" to do anything. Very well explained!

[@JayLikesLasers]

Brilliant stuff.

[@Wagon_Lord]

I think it's great that you show what sort of equipment universities have and that you showed us the image produced by the TEM. It's something not a lot of people ever get to see, so I'm grateful for that. Your models for the actual physical process are, of course, some of the best I've seen.

[@boothehorde]

I do not know why im watching this during my Christmas break. But ive been trying to grow crystals for months on end now for my research. But your explanation is really good for simplifying the complexity of of crystallography.

[@owenfrausto9375]

Lattice structures always seemed daunting and confusing, thank you for sharing it in such a friendly and intuitive way!

[@dennisrkb]

Love your agitation mechanism, esp. how you achieved various frequencies and amplitudes. Ingenious!

[@aitan6593]

Such a gem of a channel… my lord. Extremely coherent, proprietary knowledge presented in a well-directed and well-edited manner. This is what I love about KZbin.

[@Cketzalcoatl]

Awesome videos man. Some of the greatest practical demos out there. I've got a PhD in materials science and you've helped me intuitively understand some of these concepts better with your videos than with years of study. Good job!

[@sphericalfoxooo1446]

This channel is a hidden GEM :D

[@allriper]

This helped me understand more about the primary, secondary and tertiary carbons. I knew how stable or stronger they were because of their arrangement but it only made "sense" on my brain after watching this. Thanks man!

[@designersmind3140]

I studied x-ray diffraction and crystallography in college, and this video gave me a better intuitive understanding of those subjects than most of my classes did. Great stuff. Would love to see more 3D printed shapes using different size ratios and maybe even 3 or more different atom sizes. I'd recommend getting a resin printer so you can see the lattices in even more detail, and get crystal clear prints!

[@JeffreyJonesRecumbentRider]

Just watched this video. My ears perked up when you said rhombic dodecahedron. I just finished building 3 rhombic dodecahedron models to visualize the interior space of the 72 pencil hexastick model from Matt Parker's Stand up maths channel. Too cool that your 3D model forms that shape.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Matt Parker is awesome!

[@jonwallace6204]

I like how excited you are about the things you talk about.

[@Variety_Pack]

5:35 and here we have the "sad-clown" crystalline structure

[@mikebel74]

This channel is a treasure. You explained that better than any textbook I’ve read, or lecture I’ve attended, or other video I’ve watched. Masterful. Just from watching your video, I have a deeper understanding of crystal formation than ever. Thank you. I discovered Alpha Phoenix a few weeks ago, and I’m in the process of binge watching all your videos. Time well spent! You make the Internet shine like so many of us thought it would back in the day.

[@Veptis]

I had a question in chemistry class in like year 10. And while our teacher hadn't had the time to give me an answer, a chemistry student doing an internship got a satisfying answer. Looking at a chemical equation(a process). Why do you get H20 instead of H2 and 02. Because every atom got an inherent electron negativity and every bond tries to get into a state it's most comfortable with. To get gas, you need more energy. Since every chemical process has a temperature and pressure it works best in. And changing those conditions changes the results for example. Aiming for the octal rule of valency isn't sufficient to predict what will happen. Christals are also a process that follows simple rules (difference forces between atoms as well as conditions it's in). So this video just helps the visual model in my mind.and gives answers to the questions I had in school, which for other students might not have ever gotten a statifying answer.

[@cembora4849]

thank you steve mould, i discovered great channel.

[@JamesDaBronie]

this dude looks like he's filming from the 80s and 90s and I love it!!

[@ClintWKennedy]

This is super cool. I would love to see a follow up with the 3D print of the various sized particles as well! Also it would be cool if you did one with 3 or more different sizes too!

[@reecec626]

Thank you KZbin for suggesting this guy! Utterly fascinating content!

[@Fredrik9968]

Golden ratio rhombi, closest-packing space filling geometry. Loved the video, thank you!

[@matgggg55]

Iv said it before and I’ll say it again! Your demos are AMAZING!!! They not only show the science of nature but also the “magic” of science and nature!…. This is why I love science it’s so aw inspiring that can only be related to magic. And who doesn’t like REAL magic!!?!? Iv made a few science demos like a thermo electric cloud chamber, standing wave generator, and Tesla coil , when I show my friends them you can see their mind light up with wonder. They question their understanding of reality and what is really possible in the world. The imagination of a child is relit.

[@nipundulitha4574]

Simulations are great 🔥🔥🔥 you did a great job 👌

[@johnosullivan675]

I got a sudden urge to play KSP when you introduced your quartz crystals.

[@dibyatarout8276]

Physics is beautiful indeed and it gives such pleasure when the simulation works well

[@PretzelBS]

I actually already knew that glass and quartz is made up of the same atoms. I think it’s really cool that different arrangements of the same atoms can give different properties

[@danielgeorgianni1687]

The effort put into this video is impressive. Dude set up all that, IN HIS HOTEL ROOM.... Thats dedication.

[@leophoenixmusic]

I can tell you put 110% effort into every second of your videos. Awesome!

[@alonsorobots]

Please make more videos like these!!! They were so clearly explained and your enthusiasm is fantastic :) As a side note, I noticed that your username yielded a lot of noisy results therefor making it hard to find your content!

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Thanks! I’m glad you liked it! Crystals (as thin films, not natural ones) are necessarily my thing nowadays so this was pretty fun! And yeah I’ve noticed that. Thanks for being an external source to point it out! I need to add a space in the channel name and it may help...

[@timeslongpast]

i just found your channel a few days ago, and i have to say the amount of detail and dedication you put into your videos is INSANE. the scene changes, the amount of research and interesting information you deliver, and the excellent examples makes these videos incredibly engaging and fun to watch. Super glad i found it as it seems like it’s been a hidden gem of youtube for quite some time, and now it finally looks like it’s being uncovered for lots of other people too!

[@NicleT]

Beautiful and very clever way to show what’s happening in crystal formation. Bravo!

[@Sk33bop]

Rhombic dodecahedrons are my new jam. Found my way here from reddit. Excellent job here.

[@dabneymedia7220]

When you did the 2d simulation with the water and magnets, you should use toothpicks to connect some of the dots to make “water molecules” and to see how they will crystalize

[@tissuepaper9962]

Your demo immediately reminds me of what happens when there are only 10 or 15 cocoa puffs or cheerios left in the bowl. They come together and form the same kind of crystal structure even absent magnetic attraction between them. I have found this behavior fascinating ever since I first noticed it as a kid.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Surface tension brings them together, and the fact that they are hard and take up space (repelling each other) causes them to crystallize!

[@fen740]

This video answered so many questions I didn't even know I had. I can only imagine amino acids and proteins assembling in your simulation!

[@reubenkriegel7639]

Something you kind of touched on that I think is worthy of clarifying, is that the "apparent complexity" of these structures is the lowest state of energy, and therefore doesn't violate the law of entropy but instead follows it, and that's one of the reasons why it looks like that.

[@Lord_Baphomet_]

I just finished watching your defense and saw you used this animation and idk why but I felt so proud.

[@Illogical.]

The experiment at 10:30 also shows, that some crystal structures have imperfections. edit: for example the imperfection in the bottom left corner (the imperfection, that remains till the end of the experiment) at 9:05 could eventually, if there were more atom, cover that part, and if that part doesn't settle before it is covered completely, the imperfection would grow.

[@theafro]

I'm a blacksmith, and it wasn't until I understood a bit about how crystals work, that I figured out how metal actually works. metallurgy is freaking magic!

[@alexandrembcosta]

Incredible! You got good work and also talent! keep up the good job!

[@mariodistefano2973]

Hi Alphaphoenix, this is a *FANTASTIC* video! I wonder what happens if you can introduce not only homogeneous "particles", but also take into account, what we call it, the atom's valence. In these new configurations, you could have the need not more than a certain number of neighbor atoms, to keep in a more stable configuration or REPELLED to keep the energy level at its lowest. Anyway, very good job!

[@colunizator]

found a new favourite science channel. great videos mate.

[@crazyknexkid]

This video blew my mind man! You deserve so many more views! I have always wondered how crystals can just form into a perfect lattice with no imperfections! Amazing! I have been binging your videos since discovering your channel! You're amazing!

[@Cr42yguy]

I like the fact that they're also space filling (while not being as boring as hexaeders).

[@Homo-Curiositas]

Your videos are truly amazing and help me understand way more efficient then reading it all out of books. Thank you very much!

[@TitanTubs]

Where was this guy when I was failing chemistry? Really awesome interesting content. Steve Mould brought me btw

[@fourthpanda]

I love seeing the FIRST totes!

[@myriandominguez]

Absolutely awesome work. This video deserves millions of views. Well done. Keep up the good work.

[@JL-cy1ks]

Beautiful and simple :) i can’t imagine then the effort you put into this :O great work, everyone who likes exploring ideas will find this very interesting!

[@azmainfaekislam3210]

These is what happens when you anneal a metal, alloy or ceramic sample. Great demo!

[@pinaz993]

Destin! Get over hear, Destin! You've got to see this! Seriously, I want to see a reaction video from Destin at SmarterEveryDay. His head would explode.

[@endymonyt4268]

*Dustin

[@nidhinbenny7975]

SmarterEveryDay and AlphaPhoenix seem to have a very similar style driven by curiosity. Love seeing it - science at its best.

[@healthystrong9107]

infinite intelligent design and only one could have done it. keep up the fun video ideas

[@GordonjSmith1]

This vlog really shared something both interesting and valuable with me today! I am also really impressed with your skills at visualising / presenting such an interesting but complex topic.

[@pyronac1]

again, another awesome explanation with visuals

[@mickobrien3156]

Excellent job explaining this stuff! Best on KZbin!!

[@abdullahkilinc473]

Amazing video as always. Cant wait to see this channel explode. It will happen sooner or later!

[@ChurchOfThought]

Awesome exploration project. Love how it shows how intuitive crystals are. I posted some links on the simulation video of some sims of my own. Glad to see you are getting into coding, digital systems can be super powerful and accessible in ways physical experiments might not be. Cheers!

[@BigParadox]

This channel is one of the best on KZbin. I really hope that you will feel inspired to continue to make these videos for a long time into the future. I hope you will get much more subscribers and views. Each of your videos literally deserves millions of views. I am mailing a link to your channel to some of my friends.

[@DUIofPhysics]

Would love to see a followup with some more shapes / variations.

[@SuperKamiBri]

Loved the video! Very good quality, keep it up!!!!

[@michaelrose93]

6:17 *"You probably can predict what's about to happen"* Actually I couldn't, I had no way to predict that at 6:43 and 6:46 you were going to use your _hands_ and physically intervene. But as a lover and collector of crystals, I like what you're trying to show here. I just makes me appreciate some of the rare and amazing crystals I've found all the more. *Thanks!*

[@kevinbade1694]

Just randomly found your content watching a veritasium video! Dude keep up the awesome work! Love the videos!

[@blipman17]

That's mental! Super awesome to learn this.

[@bladdnun3016]

We're trained to call the shape of a crystal the habit, not the form, but here the rhombic dodecahedron is actually the form (as well as the habit , I guess). Great video btw. :D

[@lumotroph]

Bloody fantastic teaching.

[@JuliusUnique]

I learn so much stuff I didn't know yet by watching your videos! thanks a lot, they are awesome!

[@Sjakk-e3v]

I live for this kind of content

[@timothyoh9715]

severely underrated video!

[@Splarkszter]

Love your high quality work

[@baxter1910]

beautiful physics indeed, but only because its beautifully explained!

[@newelement307]

Great stuff, man. I am working on creating lab gemstones (I actually have a few prototypes) and you've helped deepen my understanding

[@aaronskeens2389]

Fantastic video! I love how such amazingly complex entities can form out of such seemingly simple systems! THIS is why I study physics and chemistry! Keep up the good work, alpha! :D

[@kamilpavelka2157]

Seen just a few of your videos and i fell in love with you. Awesome! :)

[@paulfoss5385]

I'd love to see a simulation with tunable parameters that allowed it to grow any of the 230 crystal groups. Even better if it could grow quasicrystals. Also it would be cool to see a two dimensionsal version of the program that could produce any of the 17 wallpaper tilings. Parameters could include things mentioned in this video; numbers of types of particles, relative size of particles, relative strengths of attractions/repulsions between any two types of particles, and that could be stored in an Abelian multiplication table. Would those parameters be enough to produce all types of crystal or would it be necessary to include additional information about the particles like making particles that are only attractive/repulsive on one side?

[@sam683or]

this is just amazing.

[@JavierAlfonsoBellotadeFrutos]

5:43 a sad face for a great video

[@albertolando5268]

A few months ago I left a solution of sodium iodide aside and forgot that there. To my great surprise when I got back I had a beautiful exagonal crystal (actually an prism with hexagonal base); I knew this was correlated to the crystal structure but I didn't know it was due to the Iodine atom dimension, your planar example makes me think that that was the reason; nonetheless looking up the 3D crystal structure of the compound it is not evident to me that such an hexagonal crystal would form, so as you said the crystal habit is not easily predictable from the lattice structure, interesting!. Great video, very engaging, keep it up :)

[@BairdBanko]

Thanks for sharing code!

[@eljevandeventer6514]

WOW!! Only recently discovered this channel. Thanks for the amazing simulation. The only thing I could think of at the end of the video ... What if AlphaPhoenix can add more variables to his simulation and add in more different atoms, what shape would we then get? Could a randomised computer model recreate a natural occuring structure, and if so could we use the model to "create" (I use create very loosely) a new structure / new material?

[@ethenaux]

Really fascinating. Thanks for sharing this!

[@apsleyhigh]

you think its beautiful physics, and i think u are a beautiful man for sharing your joy and in turn turning it into my joy, neither of us knew each other or tried but because the video wound up in my box i got to experience it as well

[@Ideagineer]

Surprised you don't have a million subs yet. Should change soon.

[@adriangaleron3293]

Oh man, you are so bad at clickbaits. The video turned out to be awesome!! I had not watched a better explanation of crystal lattices before. The video is 1000 times bettwer than what the thumbnail makes you think. Awesome script, awesome "real physics simulation", and ye... the TEM image was incredible. And at last, can someone explain me why i feel like playing ksp when watching those quarz crystals??

[@compfpv]

Gosh darn, excellent video!

[@fleskenialation]

Just galavanted across your channel from reddit. Very well made video. It's interesting to see the difference size of atom may play on the crystalline lattice. I've never really seen it visualized like this before. Well done. My research is in polymer chemistry btw

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

Glad you liked it!

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

0:38 The idea that systems following very simple rules can evolve and exhibit very complicated patterns and behavior is a theme found throughout math and physics. Biological Evolution: Am I a joke to you? You even got this idea and even the name from me.

[@thejsnielsen7118]

This is brilliant!