• Question: Hi Alex my name is Mohamed and I was wondering how are rocks useful how will they so anything it's just a solid object

    Asked by mohamed2536 to Alexander on 21 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by rashed, taliamounir12.
    • Photo: Alexander Munnoch

      Alexander Munnoch answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      Hi all, thanks for asking this.

      It may be surprising but some of their uses are because they are solid.

      Some rocks are useful are sources of other materials like metals. Metals can be taken out of metal-rich rocks called ores. This combined with recycling are our two main ways of getting metals.

      Other useful rocks can be quartz (silicon dioxide – similar to sand). Quartz has a strange property where you can apply pressure to it and it conducts electricity and this is used in electronics and wristwatches!

      The rocks I use/make are called zeolites which are very very porous like pumice stone or sponges. Because of this they are used world wide as molecular sieves – the holes in them are so small they can pick out individual chemicals from other ones like a sieve. Because of this they are used in water purification (also mineral water!), petrochemicals (can selectively react smaller chemicals) and the nuclear clean-up industry (the zeolites can selectivty pick up uranium etc.

      Hopefully that helps, if you have any more questions please let me know!
      Alex

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