Monday 31 December 2007

Probability:



In the picture is a Flourite crystal. I went for a swim one evening on the beach and stopped by the sea wall.Went for a swim ,went home and found i had left my keys and watch on the beach by the sea wall.The tide had come in so i had to wait till the morning to find them.The drift of the tide is west to East here with the beach facing south.It was very hot and the sea was very very calm so the drift of the tide would leave my keys where i left them.

I got up at 6.30 in the morning to catch low tide and took the Metal Detector and started scanning.Got a signal and started digging in the shingle.Out popped the flourite crystal.They are not found here geologically so i can only guess that it was dropped but when ? how many billions and billions of pebbles on the beach ? This may have been the only example on the beach. I dont know what the odds are but add lots and lots and lots of 0s. Under it was my keys and watch about 6 inches down.


Fluorite has a hardness of 4 .Flint has a hardness of 6 -6.5 so the crystal would have worn away in the end.

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