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What is the most delicious rock? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 5 days ago by hperrin@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

32 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was discussing this with some friends yesterday, and we’ve basically narrowed it down to three contenders. In order:

Salt
Ice
Copper ore

Rules:

Going by dictionary definition of “rock”, which means “stone”, which means “mineral”.

Water is a mineral according to the dictionary, which is why ice is in there.

Minerals are inorganic according to the dictionary, so things like sugar crystals don’t count, since they’re organic.

So, is it one of those three, or are there other delicious rocks that we’ve overlooked?

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[–] voracitude@lemmy.world 13 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Sorry, no, water is not a mineral because it doesn't have a characteristic crystalline structure, and if a dictionary says otherwise it's wrong: https://geology.com/articles/water-mineral/

However ice can be, if it forms naturally - the definition of mineral is:

A naturally occurring, homogeneous inorganic solid substance having a definite chemical composition and characteristic crystalline structure, color, and hardness.

And yes, this means that if you grow a crystal like a diamond for example in a lab, technically it's not a mineral (it's just sparkling rock).

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Yeah, we’re talking about ice.

5

a

: a solid homogeneous crystalline chemical element or compound that results from the inorganic processes of nature

broadly : any of various naturally occurring homogeneous substances (such as stone, coal, salt, sulfur, sand, petroleum, water, or natural gas) obtained usually from the ground

- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mineral

The rule we decided on in the discussion was that we would follow the dictionary definition of “rock”, which led us to conclude that ice is a rock.

If we want to be super pedantic, the dictionary does have a definition of rock as in “rock candy” that’s a sugar crystal, but we decided in the spirit of the discussion that we would not consider “rock” to include “rock candy”. And for the same reason, we do not include chunks of crack cocaine.

[–] voracitude@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Well, okay, I understand what you mean and why, but you stated "water is a mineral according to the dictionary" in your post, so I was just clarifying that bit. So yeah, Merriam-Webster is wrong.

Edit: Again, sorry. This is the internet and pedants like me thrive here 😅

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I agree, which is why we didn’t include simply “copper”, but “copper ore”, since I don’t think ingots of pure copper occur naturally. (But I could totally be wrong here, I’m just guessing.)

Ps, I love the pedantry. :)

[–] Shotgun_Alice@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Native Copper does naturally occur, especially in the upper peninsula of Michigan.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Ah, ok. I guess that one should just be “copper” then.

[–] SpookyLights@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Does copper taste good? Asking for myself

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

I like the taste.

[–] confuser@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

Ice V Yes actually ice v is a thing