What's the hardest crystal to find on Earth, and which ones are just make-believe?

What's the hardest crystal to find on Earth, and which ones are just make-believe?

A question from an 8-year-old boy from England

What's the hardest crystal to find on Earth, and which ones are just make-believe?

Great questions! Some really cool but super rare crystals are hard to find because they're so difficult to access.

Painite, for example, is an extra special crystal that was thought to be the rarest in the world. It wasn't discovered until the middle of the 20th century, and there are only about a few hundred of them in the world!

Did you know that diamonds, which are a type of crystal, are also the hardest natural material found on Earth when it comes to how tough they are? That means they can scratch anything but nothing can scratch them, only another diamond can scratch or cut them.That's why we use diamonds to make tools for cutting and grinding in lots of different jobs because they're super strong and don't wear out easily.

Then there are crystals that someone created using their imagination. We usually see these crystals in movies, TV shows, and video games, but because no one has ever actually found or made them in real life, they are unfortunately just make-believe. 

Scientists have even predicted stuff like "hyperdiamond" or "carbyne," which is a kind of carbon that might be even tougher than a diamond. There are lots of other things they've estimated using science and numbers, but nobody has found or made them for real yet. They could be super cool though! Some might be able to zap electricity like a superhero or be tougher than anything we’ve seen, but so far, they're just predictions made through scientific calculations. But who knows? We are always discovering new things about our planet, so we might find those crystals someday!

And so, even though we know about tons of crystals and other elements, there are still new ones that we can only dream about or predict using science. Maybe one day, we'll be able to find or make these envisioned crystals a reality.

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