Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2005 9:51 pm Posts: 28 Location: Aberdeen, Washington
Doos,
I would love to get more information from all the pros out there on this. It is very hard to learn when you are isolated as I am from other students. This is a great place to learn from the experts. I will not be able to have any input, but I will be here every day looking for new postings and will follow with the group as we learn from experts. I may even ask some questions if it gets over my head if that is ok.... Carl the Gemlover.....
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2005 10:48 pm Posts: 26 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
This type of deductive elimination is called a dichotomous key (or identitication key) in biology, and it can indeed be very useful, especially when trying to sort several highly similar specimens into genera and species. A gemmologist can certainly adopt this method. The data can be arranged into a graphical schema, namely a flowchart, and this can serve both as a reference tool and a study exercise.
Such a key could be organized either by colour (probably the most practical), or for the more mineralogically inclined, by class (silicate, carbonate, oxide, phosphate, halide, etc.). It would be a lot of work to compile a complete key for all 150+ minerals fashioned into gemstones, but an abridged version covering the most common ones might be something worth spending a few weekends on.
As an aside, this forum's description contains two orthographic errors:
The Forum wrote:
Diagnostic Clues: How the pro's seperate gems whose properties overlap to the point of utter confusion!
Bolding mine: there shouldn't be an apostrophe in "pros", and sepArate is misspelt. Sorry to bring this up here, but I didn't know who I should bug with a PM. Cheers.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:42 pm Posts: 2846 Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
What's "A comma" between friends anyways?
Snizzy and Barbra are the two people here who have respectively moderator and administrator status, so anything like that should be directed to either of these ladies.
As an aside, this forum's description contains two orthographic errors:
The Forum wrote:
Diagnostic Clues: How the pro's seperate gems whose properties overlap to the point of utter confusion!
Bolding mine: there shouldn't be an apostrophe in "pros", and sepArate is misspelt. Sorry to bring this up here, but I didn't know who I should bug with a PM. Cheers.
LOL! We don't take points off for spelling Gregory! And it's a good thing considering the misspelling of "identification" above.
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
Good grief.
Thanks Gregory for your help.
Sometimes I type too fast and don't proof read.....and sometimes I'm just stupid.
You can always feel free to correct my spelling, although I do suspect it may be a full time job.
Thanks Snizzy, for finding Gregory's spelling error...I totally overlooked it.
The same thing popped into my mind - a key, or critical path, or whatever the heck it's called. [Dang, I hate it when the needed memory cells are asleep at the switch...] We've all seen those tree-diagrams with "Yes" and "No" boxes...on IRS forms, if nothing else.
Isn't there some piece of gemology software from Adamas that does this? Has anyone tried it? What is the starting parameter - something simple like color, or something a bit trickier, like refractive index?
The software most suitable for this is your own brain. No programme can ever compete with that on this topic (atleast not for now). It's the associative memory that makes us superior over computers.
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2005 10:48 pm Posts: 26 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Snizzy wrote:
LOL! We don't take points off for spelling Gregory! And it's a good thing considering the misspelling of "identification" above.
You're quite right; I've fallen victim to Skitt's law, as I was no doubt destined to. This is why I usually suppress my inner Grammar Harpy, unless the error is particularly important; such as one that mars the forum index's Junoesque facade.
Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2005 9:51 pm Posts: 28 Location: Aberdeen, Washington
Thank you ALL for making me run to the dictionary every few postings to know what you are talking about. Everyday you can learn something new is a wonderful day...... and again my friends, you made today a wonderful day.
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