Crystals and Melts

It might be supposed that crystals and melts are so familiar that their properties would be self-evident. Our familiarity is, however, based largely on the crystal ice and the melt water, and the substance H2O has such unusual properties that we would be seriously misled if we used this as a model for silicates (except quartz!), as we shall see below. The phenomena of melting and crystallization are unfamiliar to many readers, and the atomic organization and bonding of liquids turns out to have much importance for the theory and practice of melting.