millimeetrite

Millimeetrite is a fictional mineral used in teaching mineralogy and crystallography to illustrate standard methods of description and classification. It does not exist as a verified mineral in official databases and is commonly employed in classroom datasets and textbook examples.

Etymology and naming: The name follows the conventional -ite suffix common to mineral names and uses a prefix inspired by measurement terminology, but it carries no implication of real-world measurement standard. It is introduced purely for instructional purposes and is not intended to replace genuine mineral nomenclature.

Description and properties: In educational illustrations millimeetrite is described as a silicate mineral with a general formula presented for teaching examples only. Typical characterizations used in problems include a hardness of 5 on the Mohs scale, a vitreous to pearly luster, a color range from colorless to pale yellow, and a translucent to transparent appearance. Reported densities are around 3.0 g/cm3, with a commonly assumed crystal system such as tetragonal or monoclinic in different problem sets. It is often described as forming prismatic crystals in hypothetical igneous or metamorphic settings, though no geologic occurrence has been confirmed.

Educational use and classification: Millimeetrite is employed to demonstrate how mineral data are tabulated, compared, and interpreted. It provides a controlled example for practicing identifications, classification into silicates, and understanding how properties like cleavage, fracture, and optical behavior are described in references and field guides. While fictional, it supports learning workflows used for real minerals and data recording.