Replying mainly to LO26078
Dear LO'ers,
It becomes very complicated here to reply to only one contribution. And
the word *replying* has in ordinary life the meaning (or at least the
purpose ;-)) that it refers to the original for some percentage. If the
reply jumps to an association then the relation with the original becomes
sometimes mysterious.
OK. LO26078 was more a springboard or trempoline.
At wrote:
>In geology the suffix "-ite" have a powerful use in mineralogy. For
>example at many places in and around Pretoria one can find dolomite. Bu I
>will leave it to Leo Minnigh to explain its use in geology as well as
>reinterpret it for LO thinking. Andrew, nature's most beautiful
>sculptures in rocks you will find among dolomite outcrops!
I know of calcite, granite, quartzite, etc. Either single minerals
(calcite), or rocks composed of different minerals (granite), or rocks
composed of one mineral (quartzite). I think the -ite suffix refers to a
unity, an organisation. Un-ite.
And is it the amateur poet in me that thinks of the word *kite*? Anyway,
this kite was the springboard to another message: parabolic thinking. At
has invited us to do some mental imagitive exercises. A cord fixed in
between two fixation points. The curve in between is close to a parabole.
But not exactly. Mathematicians refer to this curve as a *catenary*. I do
not mention this to correct At, but I needed this to link it to the kite.
I remember a deep discussion during my student times. A discussion that
lasted the whole night long, the quality decreased lineary with the
quantity of beer ;-). The topic of that discussion was: "is the line
between person and kite a mathematical catenary?"
> Andrew, nature's most beautiful sculptures
>in rocks you will find among dolomite outcrops!
Andrew should travel to find some dolomites. Dolomite is the name for a
mineral and a name for a rock that is composed of that mineral. Dolomite
is a calcium-magnesium carbonate: CaMg(CO3)2. One could say that it is a
limestone or marble, rich in magnesium. The main difference with marble or
limestone is the feeling: limestone and marble are more pasty and fine
grained, whereas dolomite is sugerish- very typical for dolomite. For
man-made sculptures marble is preferable because of its more homegeneous
nature. But indeed, nature-made sculptures are often fantastic in
dolomites. As in massive sandstones (Andrew, the Millstone grid of
Yorkshire), marbles, granites, some limestones. One averall characteristic
of these rocks is that they are not layered, no internal structure. They
are fairly homogeneous in structure. That property is extraordinary,
because most rock formations do have an internal foliation. This foliation
is caused by sedimentation or by deformational processes in the Earth's
crust. Only a few rocks are able to react to deformational pressures
without the formation of fractures are preferred orientation of minerals.
Therefore only a few natural rocktypes are suitable for building stones
(granite, marble, limestone, sandstone), and even a lesser number is
suitable as mill stone (because then also the hardness will play a role).
Weathering of these massive homogeneous rocks result often on nice rounded
and smooth forms. Nature does not like pointed and sharp forms. But these
latter forms do occur, even in the dolomites of the Austrian Dolomite
Mountains. Usually the pointed and sharp forms occur in areas with not so
much rain and temperatures far below zero. The frost cracks and breaks the
rocks without a polishing process.
At, is there also near Pretoria acid rain? Acid rain will bring carbonate
into solution, therefore the marble sculptures in western cities suffer so
much.
Shaping by breaking and cracking, by polishing, or by removing through
solution.
I wonder what all this has to do with "They all Claim to be LOs", the
subject title of this message.
dr. Leo D. Minnigh
l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl
Library Technical University Delft
PO BOX 98, 2600 MG Delft, The Netherlands
Tel.: 31 15 2782226
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let your thoughts meander towards a sea of ideas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--Leo Minnigh <l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.