Miller indices are important in mineralogy because they are universally used to

Question

Miller indices are important in mineralogy because they are universally used to describe and label crystal faces. Acomplete understanding of Miller indices can be quite complex. However, a basic understanding is necessary in order to use them to describe simple crystal morphology Miller indices are the reciprocals of the intercept lengths made by faces cutting crystallographic axes. That is, for intercepts of, say, 1/3, 1 and ½ on the a, b and c axis of a crystal, the Miller index is 263. However, in practice many simple crystals can be described by indexes involving only 0 and 1 The mineral shown below belongs to the cubic crystal system (it is essentially a cube with the corners cut off). This exercise is designed to derive the Miller indices for all of the faces shown.

Explanation / Answer

For question part 1- The face "d" is perpendicular to the c axis as c axis runs vertically and the face "d" is placed horizontally is the basal section of the mineral.

For question part 2- There is no such face that cuts two axes and is parallel to one in the mineral.

For question part 3- Faces "a,e,g,f" cuts all the axes when extended.

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