21.2.5: Chapter 5
Unfolding Case Study
1.
d.
Diets high in processed foods, red meats, and refined sugars have all been shown to lead to cognitive decline.
2.
b.
Cerebral blood flow should be evaluated with a PET scan to determine whether poor blood flow could be contributing to changes in cognitive status.
3.
a.
Consuming 1.1–1.6 g of omega-3 fatty acids daily has been shown to optimize brain function in clients over 51 years of age.
4.
c.
Omega-3 fatty acids are found largely in colorful fruits and vegetables, as well as in fortified cereals and beverages. Fruits, such as grapes, apples, pears, cherries, and berries; dark chocolate; legumes; red wine; tea; and coffee are also good sources.
5.
c.
The client’s going to their dietitian appointment shows adherence to the prescribed plan. Signs of nonadherence include alcohol use; increased BMI; increased total cholesterol; increased blood pressure; low intake of fruits, vegetables, and fiber; and high intake of processed sugars.
6.
c.
Tau proteins can become tangled and accumulate in the brain and cause dysfunction.
7.
b.
Because of rising food costs, it may be helpful to use an air fryer to avoid deep-frying foods while maintaining the client’s current food preferences, such as fried foods, and increasing adherence to the meal plan.
8.
b.
Cerebral blood flow should be evaluated with a PET scan to determine whether poor blood flow could be contributing to Jamal’s changes in cognitive status.
Review Questions
1.
b.
Supplements given via nasogastric tube can provide enteral nutrition for clients with dysphagia who are at risk for aspiration.
2.
c.
The client is hyponatremic due to the head injury and is conserving fluids. In addition to fluid restriction, medications may be administered to correct SIADH.
3.
a.
The progression of Alzheimer’s disease may be slowed by the consistent intake of polyphenols, and colored berries are a rich source of polyphenols.
4.
a.
All other choices may result in inflammation and can cause further damage to the myelin sheath of nerve cells.
5.
b.
The ketogenic diet is low in carbohydrates, and a low-carbohydrate diet has been shown to reduce the incidence of seizures.
6.
b.
Dehydration is common among older adults because of a diminished sense of thirst; vigorous exercise can cause rapid dehydration, and hydration is the priority to assess.
7.
d.
Although supplements may be beneficial in some cases, most nutrients are best absorbed when they are consumed as regular food. Even though many Americans do not eat a healthy diet, it is best to evaluate current dietary patterns and offer changes before recommending dietary supplements.
8.
c.
Evidence supports a cognitive benefit of intermittent fasting in Parkinson’s disease as well as epilepsy, stroke, and Alzheimer’s disease.
9.
c.
The National Institutes of Health recommends 1.1–1.6 g of omega-3 fatty acids daily for a 52-year-old adult.
10.
c.
Tau proteins provide structural support to the microtubules in the neuron but can become tangled due to phosphorylation.


2.4: Mineral Basics
The solid earth is made of rocks, which are made of minerals. To understand rocks you need to become familiar with minerals and how they are identified. This basics page gives you the background needed to understand the terms used in the minerals classification table, which contains information for identifying minerals.
WHAT ARE MINERALS?
All rocks except obsidian and coal are made of minerals. (Obsidian is a volcanic rock made of glass and coal is made of organic carbon.) Most rocks contain several minerals in a mixture characteristic of the particular rock type. When identifying a rock you must first identify the individual minerals that make up that rock. Minerals are naturally occurring, inorganic solids with a definite chemical composition and a crystal lattice structure. Although thousands of minerals in the earth have been identified, just ten minerals make up most of the volume of the earth’s crust–plagioclase, quartz, orthoclase, amphibole, pyroxene, olivine, calcite, biotite, garnet, and clay.
Together, the chemical formula (the types and proportions of the chemical elements) and the crystal lattice (the geometry of how the atoms are arranged and bonded together) determine the physical properties of minerals. The chemical formula and crystal lattice of a mineral can only be determined in a laboratory, but by examining a mineral and determining several of its physical properties, you can identify the mineral. First, you need to become familiar with the physical properties of minerals and how to recognize them.
THE CHEMISTRY OF MINERALS
Why study the chemistry of minerals? Minerals are made of atoms. To understand, explain, and predict the behavior of minerals, and rocks, which are made of minerals, we must understand some basic facts about atoms and how they behave. This requires understanding some chemistry. We will begin by constructing atoms in our thinking in terms of the three sub-atomic particles of which atoms are made.
Atoms
Atoms consist of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons have a positive (+) electrical charge. Neutrons are electrically neutral. Electrons have a negative (-) charge that is exactly equal and opposite to the electrical charge of a proton. /
Most of the mass of an atom is packed into its tiny nucleus. An atomic nucleus is made of protons and neutrons. Arranged in specific orbitals around the nucleus of an atom are the electrons. Even though the mass of an electron is a tiny mass compared to the mass of a proton or a neutron, the electrons occupy most of the volume of an atom.
Ions
A neutral atom has the same number of electrons as it does protons. An atom that has lost or gained any electrons is no longer an electrically neutral atom. That type of atom, which is not electrically neutral and has an electrical charge associated with it, is called an ion. Atoms that have gained electrons are negatively (-) charged ions, or anions. Atoms that have lost electrons are positively (+) charged ions, or cations. It is also possible to have ions that are actually small groups of atoms bonded together. These are known as polyatomic ions. One example of a polyatomic ion is the carbonate ion, (CO 3 ) 2- , which has two extra electrons, giving it the net electrical charge of 2-.
The Periodic Table
Naturally occurring atoms found in the earth range from hydrogen, with just one proton in its nucleus, to uranium, with 92 protons in its nucleus. These are the naturally occurring chemical elements, which includes such commonly known elements as carbon, oxygen, iron, and so on. The periodic table lists all the chemical elements in a way that tells us how many protons each of them has, how its electrons are arranged, and what the general chemical behavior of each element is.
Follow this link to a large version of the Periodic Table. The link will open in a new window so you can easily refer to it as you read through this Basics page.
Each chemical element is distinguished by the number of protons in its nucleus. The atomic number of an element tells you how many protons it has. For example, every atom of the element oxygen has eight protons in its nucleus. That is why the atomic number of oxygen is 8. If an atom has greater or fewer than eight protons in its nucleus, it is not oxygen, it is some other chemical element. In the periodic table, the atomic number of each element is listed above the chemical symbol of the element.
The chemical elements in the periodic table form columns that are called groups. All the elements in a group have a similar chemical behavior. That is because all the elements in a group have a similar arrangement of electrons in their atoms, and it is the electron arrangement that determines the chemical behavior of an element.
Isotopes
An atom of a specific chemical element must have in its nucleus the number of protons given by its atomic number. However, there is a range of possible numbers of neutrons it can have in its nucleus. The fact that atoms of a chemical element may have different numbers of neutrons results in each chemical element having several isotopes. Isotopes are atoms of a given chemical element that have different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.
For example, while all atoms of the element oxygen have eight protons in their nuclei, those oxygen atoms may have eight, nine, or ten neutrons. The different numbers of neutrons in the nucleus distinguishes the three isotopes of oxygen. Oxygen-16 is the isotope of oxygen with 8 neutrons in its nucleus. The number 16 is called the atomic mass number. The atomic mass number is the total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an isotope. From this definition, and knowing that all oxygen atoms have 8 protons in the nucleus, you can deduce that oxygen-17 is the oxygen isotope with 9 neutrons and oxygen-18 is the oxygen isotope with 10 neutrons. Abbreviated into symbols, the three isotopes of oxygen are written as 16 O, 17 O and 18 O.
Isotopes are not very important for understanding minerals, but are important in understanding how to apply chemistry and nuclear physics to geology, such as how to use measurements of radioactive isotopes to measure the ages of rocks and minerals and how to use oxygen isotopes from layers of glacial ice to determine what the temperature of the earth was during an ice age.
Chemical Reactions
Minerals form as a result of chemical reactions. Chemical reactions are driven mainly by the arrangement and re-arrangement of electrons in atoms. In a mineral, the atoms are held together by chemical bonds, which derive from the electrons.
Electrons can be thought of as occupying energy levels, or shells, in an atom. The lowest-energy shell is closest to the nucleus. Each shell can accommodate only a limited number of electrons. The first shell can hold two electrons, the second and third shells can hold eight electrons, and the next two shells can hold eighteen electrons. Unless energy is added to an atom to excite it from its low-energy state, the electrons in the atom will occupy the lowest-energy shells available to them.
Chemical Bonds
If atoms interact with other atoms, they can gain or lose electrons to the other atoms, or share electrons with other atoms. In an individual atom, the most stable arrangement is a full outer shell of electrons. Therefore, chemical reactions will occur, and chemical bonds will form that hold atoms together to each other, when atoms encounter other atoms and change their electron configurations toward more stable, lower-energy arrangements, which generally involves achieving full outer electron shells in the atoms.
This stable configuration—a full outer shell of electrons—is exemplified by the inert gases. In the periodic table the inert gases are the elements of group 18 or VIIIA, the last column on the right. Inert gases do not have to undergo any chemical reactions or form any chemical bonds with other atoms in order to have a full outer shell of electrons. The inert gases already have full outer shells of electrons. That is why they are chemically inert. Their electrons are as stable as can be arranged. For this reason, inert gases are extremely unlikely to undergo any chemical reactions and it is almost impossible for them to bond with any other atoms. Because they do not bond with any other atoms to form a liquid, a solid, a molecule, or a mineral, the inert gases consist of atoms that stay separate from each other, in the gas state.
Individual atoms of all the other chemical elements, when they are neutral atoms, do not have full outer shells of electrons like the inert gases do. Therefore, they do not have the most stable arrangement of electrons that they possibly can. That is why most chemical elements have a strong tendency to either gain or lose electrons, or to enter into other arrangements of their valence electrons, the electrons in their outer shell. Chemical reactions and chemical bonds are generally a result of electrons being rearranged within and among atoms to give the atoms full outer electron shells.
For an atom to lose or gain one electron takes less energy than to lose or gain two, which in turn takes less energy than to lose or gain a third electron. For an individual atom to gain or lose four electrons will only occur in extremely high-energy environments such as in a star. In common chemical reactions on earth, and in the formation of chemical bonds, no element will completely gain or lose four electrons. This limits the charges of atomic cations to +1, +2 or +3 and the charges of atomic anions to –1, –2, or –3.
Reading this far, you have learned about one group of elements in the periodic table, group 18, the inert gases. Another group of chemical elements in the periodic table is the alkali elements. The alkali elements compose group 1 or IA, the left hand column, including the elements sodium (Na) and potassium (K).
Hydrogen is not usually considered as an alkali element because, even though it is shown in group 1 in the periodic table. Hydrogen is so light and small, with just a single proton in its nucleus, that it has some unique behaviors and is considered in a class by itself.
The alkali elements have a single electron in their outer electron shell. If an alkali element loses a single electron, it becomes an ion with a +1 charge and a full outer shell. If an opportunity arises, alkali elements will easily turned into +1 cations.
Ionic Bonds
Now look at group 17 or VIIA in the periodic table, which includes the chemical elements fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl) and so on. These are the halogen elements. If a halogen element gains a single electron, it becomes an ion with a -1 charge and a full outer electron shell. If an opportunity arises, halogen elements have a strong tendency to take in an extra electron and become -1 anions because by doing so they achieve a full outer shell of electrons, which is the most stable arrangement of electrons possible.
If sodium and chlorine atoms get together in the right conditions, such as in an evaporating solution of salt water, each sodium atoms will give up an electron to a chlorine atom. This turns the sodium atoms into sodium ions, Na + , and the chlorine atoms into chloride ions, Cl – . Opposite electrical charges attract, so the sodium ions and chloride ions will tend to stick together with each other, joined by what are called ionic bonds.
Not only will the sodium and chloride ions have a very strong tendency to join together with each other via ionic bonds, in most situations they will naturally arrange into a configuration where there is no wasted space and no wasted energy. This leads them to form the crystal lattice of the mineral halite. Halite is a mineral with the chemical formula NaCl, sodium chloride, in which the bonds between the atoms are all ionic bonds.
Look at the diagram of halite showing the sodium and chloride ions arranged into the crystal lattice. All the ionic bonds are at the same angle and the same distance, so they are all of equal strength. This is the lowest-energy arrangement of the ions, the most stable arrangement. If any of the ions were spaced located at different angles or at different distances, there would be extra energy available. This extra energy would drive the ions toward equal angles and distances from each other, until the extra energy is used up and the ions are arranged into their lowest energy state. That is why minerals form, as a natural way for atoms to arrange themselves into the lowest energy state currently available to them.
Covalent Bonds
Some elements, such as carbon (C) and silicon (Si) have a half-full valence shell. (The valence shell is another name for the outer shell, where the most reactive electrons are.) If an element such as carbon were to gain 4 electrons or lose 4 electrons, it would have a full valence shell. However, it is very difficult for an atom to gain or lose four electrons – the energy barrier becomes too strong. Therefore, carbon and silicon, along with a few other elements, tend to form a different type of bond in which they share their outer electrons with other atoms, which in turn share their outer electrons with the carbon (or silicon) atom. The atoms all end up with a full outer shell of electrons, even though some or all of those electrons are being shared with neighboring atoms. This electron sharing keeps the atoms bonded together. This type of chemical bond is called a covalent bond.
It is not uncommon for covalent bonds to be relatively strong. An extreme example can be in diamond. Diamond is a mineral consisting of nothing but carbon atoms, so its chemical formula is simply C. Each carbon atom in the diamond crystal lattice is covalently bonded to – sharing its valence electrons with – four neighboring carbon atoms. A diamond crystal is held together by nothing but extremely strong covalent bonds in all directions, which makes diamond a very hard mineral, the hardest known.
Metallic Bonds
Gold forms a naturally occurring mineral of more or less pure gold, Au, held together by another type of bond, the metallic bond. Metallic elements such as gold and copper, when they bond with other metallic elements, are sharing some of their electrons not just with adjacent atoms, but throughout the whole substance. That is why metallic substances such as copper, gold, and aluminum make such good electrical conductors, because it is so easy to get the “loose” electrons to respond through the whole extent of the metal.
Hydrogen Bonds
Another type of chemical bond that occurs in some minerals is the hydrogen bond. Hydrogen bonds are caused by the positive and negative ends of polar molecules attracting each other strongly enough to hold each other in fixed positions. For example, water molecules can join together through hydrogen bonds to form the mineral known as ice. In a water molecule, H 2 O, each of the hydrogen atoms forms a covalent bond with the oxygen atom. To form the covalent bonds, each hydrogen atom shares a pair of electrons with the oxygen atom. (This gives all the atoms in the molecule a full outer electron shell.) In the molecule the two hydrogen atoms are bonded to the oxygen atom toward one side of the oxygen atom, rather than at opposite ends. Because the oxygen atom is so electronegative, the pairs of electrons it shares with the hydrogen atoms are skewed toward the nucleus of the oxygen. This leaves a net positive charge on the hydrogen side of the molecule and a net negative charge on the oxygen end of the molecule, resulting in water molecule being a polar molecule, a molecule with a positive end and a negative end. Such molecules can form hydrogen bonds.
If the temperature is low enough, water molecules will move slowly enough to settle into fixed positions relative to each other, held together by hydrogen bonds, forming ice. In a crystal of ice, the water molecules have formed hydrogen bonds by arranging themselves so the negative ends of water molecules face toward positive ends of other water molecules. Ice is a mineral with a six-sided symmetry in its crystal lattice. The hydrogen bonds between water molecules in ice are relatively weak. That is why ice melts at a temperature that is not very high compared to the melting temperatures of minerals held together by ionic or covalent bonds.
Van Der Waals Bonds
There is one other type of chemical bond to consider, a weak type of bond which occurs in some minerals. It is called the van der Waals bond after its discoverer. van der Waals bonds form between parallel sheets or parallel lines of atoms, and are caused by the electric charges in the sheets or lines of atoms fluctuating and responding to the flux—for example, the electrical charge of part of a sheet of atoms may fluctuate and become more negative. In response, this may cause the adjacent sheet to fluctuate toward the positive. There will be an attraction between these positive and negative areas, tending to hold the sheets of atoms together. The electrical attractions shift and fluctuate as the electrical charges shift and fluctuate among the atoms, but even though the electrical attractions do not remain in one place for very long, they are occurring at all times in some parts of the parallel structure. The result is a weak bonding effect, the van der Waals bond.
Graphite is a mineral held together, in part, by van der Waals bonds. Graphite consists of sheets of covalently bonded carbon atoms. Each sheet of carbon atoms is strongly bonded in two dimensions throughout the sheet. But in the third dimension, only weak van der Waals bonds hold the sheets of carbon atoms together. It is very easy to get the sheets of graphite to flake apart from each other, as easy as writing on a piece of paper with a pencil. Under a microscope, you can see that pencil marks are made of many tiny flakes of graphite.
Silicate Minerals and the Silicate Tetrahedron
Most of the minerals in the earth are silicate minerals. The building block of silicate minerals – the essential component that makes them silicate minerals – is the silicate tetrahedron. The silicate tetrahedron consists of four oxygen atoms arranged as close as they can get around a central silicon atom. The result is a pyramidal shape known as a tetrahedron, with an oxygen atom at each of its four apices. (The apices are the points on the tetrahedron where three corners come together.)
The silicon atom by itself has four electrons in its outer shell. In the silicate tetrahedron each of those four electrons is being shared with one of the four attached oxygen atoms. In turn, each oxygen atom is sharing one of the 6 electrons it has in its outer shell.
The result is that the silicon at the center of the tetrahedron has, in effect, a full outer shell with eight electrons in it. Those eight electrons are shared, in pairs, with the four oxygen atoms of the tetrahedron. Each oxygen atom in the tetrahedron, in turn, will have seven electrons in its outer shell – if there is nothing more to the system than the one silicon atom bonded to the four oxygen atoms. This would leave each oxygen atom one electron short of having a full outer shell of electrons.
However, oxygen is a strongly electronegative element, which means that it has the strength to attract electrons from other elements to its nucleus in most situations. In a mineral, each oxygen atom in the silicate tetrahedron will actually have eight electrons: the six electrons that each oxygen atom had in its outer electron shell to begin with, the electron it gained by sharing a pair of electrons in a covalent bond with the silicon atom in the tetrahedron, and one more electron from another atom (or another small group of atoms) in the mineral, outside the tetrahedron.
Silicate tetrahedra are able to bond with many common elements in many different crystal lattice arrangements. In addition, silicate tetrahedra are able to bond with other silicate tetrahedra in a variety of geometric arrangements, including rings, sheets, chains, and three-dimensional networks.
WHY STUDY MINERALS?
Why study minerals? Because the solid earth is made almost entirely of minerals, to understand the earth we must understand the nature of minerals, how they form, and how they can be analyzed as sources of information about the earth and its history. Most rocks are made entirely of minerals, so to understand rocks and the rock cycle in depth requires being able to analyze, identify, and interpret minerals.
Each mineral contains information about the chemistry, pressure, and temperature that was present, in or on the earth, at the place and time the mineral formed. For example, diamond is a mineral, made of pure carbon, which only forms under the high pressures that occur deeper in the earth than the bottom of the crust, in places where unusually high concentrations of carbon are present in the earth’s mantle. We can analyze diamonds, and the other minerals with which they co-existed, to get at the temperatures, pressures, and chemistry of these special sites in the earth’s mantle. Diamonds thus act as probes of the earth, bringing us geological information from far greater depths in the earth than we could ever dig or drill.
Minerals commonly grow in layers that accrete onto the surface of earlier-formed parts of the mineral. If a mineral has a variable chemical composition that changes as the chemistry, pressure, and temperature of its environment changes, the layers of mineral growth can be analyzed to track the changing conditions in which the mineral grew. For example, analyzing the layers in a crystal of feldspar in a volcanic rock may reveal that the mineral grew as the magma was cooled and then re-heated as it mixed with an intruding batch of hotter magma with a differing chemical composition, which may have occurred just before the magma erupted to the earth’s surface and rapidly cooled and solidified as a lava flow.
A mineral may incorporate a radioactive element into its atomic structure as it crystallizes, and the decay of the element into its stable daughter product, which may remain trapped inside the crystal, along with the decay rate of the radioactive element, allows an analysis of the elements in the mineral to be used to measure the age of the mineral. This is how many of the ages of geological materials are measured.
Minerals, of course, provide resources for construction, industry, and technology, from quartz to make silicon chips out of for computers (or to make glass out of for windows), to calcite for making cement for concrete mix, to clay for making ceramics – in fact, there are hundreds of minerals necessary for production of productions and construction of houses, roads, and buildings. Therefore, some geologists, known as economic geologists, specialize in certain minerals that are valuable as resources, and explore the earth to locate places where the mineral is concentrated and accessible.
Gemstones and semiprecious stones, such as emeralds, diamonds, and rubies (which are gemstones) or garnets (which are semiprecious) are all minerals, as is gold. The beauty and durability of such minerals, along with the limitations to their abundance, makes them valuable to people. Even common minerals such as quartz are collected by some people and put on display, if they are found in the form of beautiful or unusually colorful crystals.
What are the Physical Properties of Minerals?
The physical properties of a mineral are controlled by its chemical composition (which types of atoms it consists of, and in what proportions) and its crystal lattice (the three-dimensional geometric pattern in which those atoms are arranged and bonded together).
It is no coincidence that crystals of quartz (SiO 2 ) are six-sided, while crystals of halite (NaCl) are cubic. This is because of the geometry of their crystal lattices. It is also no coincidence that quartz is hard enough to scratch glass and will not dissolve in water to any visible extent, whereas halite will not scratch glass and will easily dissolve in water. These differences are due to the different chemical compositions of the minerals. The sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl), by their chemical nature, readily break their bonds and become dissolved ions in water. The silicon (Si) and oxygen (O) in quartz are linked by strong bonds, which do not yield easily to the dissolving force of water.
Each mineral exhibits a unique set of physical properties. Therefore, the main task in identifying a mineral is to determine its physical properties. The physical properties that we will consider are color , luster , streak , cleavage , fracture , hardness , crystal shape , and selected special properties.
Color
Color is often useful, but should not be relied upon. Some minerals come in many different colors. Quartz, for example, may be clear, white, gray, brown, yellow, pink, red, or orange. So color can help, but do not rely on color as the determining property.
Luster
Luster is how the surface of a mineral reflects light. It is not the same thing as color, so it crucial to distinguish luster from color. For example, a mineral described as “shiny yellow” is being described in terms of luster (“shiny”) and color (“yellow”), which are two different physical properties. Standard names for luster include metallic, glassy, pearly, silky, greasy, and dull. It is often useful to first determine if a mineral has a metallic luster. A metallic luster means shiny like polished metal. For example cleaned polished pieces of chrome, steel, titanium, copper, and brass all exhibit metallic luster as do many other minerals. Of the nonmetallic lusters, glassy is the most common and means the surface of the mineral reflects light like glass. Pearly luster is important in identifying the feldspars, which are the most common type of mineral. Pearly luster refers to a subtle irridescence or color play in the reflected light, same way pearls reflect light. Silky means relecting light with a silk- like sheen. Greasy luster looks similar to the luster of solidified bacon grease. Minerals with dull luster reflect very little light. Identifying luster takes a little practice. Remember to distinguish luster from color.
Streak
Streak is the color of the mineral as a powder. It is determined by scratching a mineral against a streak plate and checking the color of the streak left behind. The streak, the color of the mineral as a powder, may be different from the whole mineral color.
Cleavage
A mineral that naturally breaks into perfectly flat surfaces is exhibiting cleavage. Not all minerals have cleavage. A cleavage represents a direction of weakness in the crystal lattice. Cleavage surfaces can be distinguished by how they consistently reflect light, as if polished, smooth, and even. The cleavage properties of a mineral are described in terms of the number of cleavages and, if more than one cleavage, the angles between the cleavages. The number of cleavages is the number or directions in which the mineral cleaves. A mineral may exhibit 100 cleavage surfaces parallel to each other. Those represent a single cleavage because the surfaces are all oriented in the same diretion. The possible number of cleavages a mineral may have are 1,2,3,4, or 6. If more than 1 cleavage is present, and a device for measuring angles is not available, simply state whether the cleavages intersect at 90° or not 90°.
To see mineral cleavage, hold the mineral up beneath a strong light and move it around, move it around some more, to see how the different sides reflect light. A cleavage direction will show up as a smooth, shiny, evenly bright sheen of light reflected by one set of parallel surfaces on the mineral.
Fracture
All minerals have fracture. Fracture is breakage, which occurs in directions that are not cleavage directions. Some minerals, such as quartz, have no cleavage whatsoever. When a mineral with no cleavage is broken apart by a hammer, it fractures in all directions. Quartz is said to exhibit conchoidal fracture. Conchoidal fracture is the way a thick piece of glass breaks with concentric, curving ridges on the broken surfaces. However, some quartz crystals have so many flaws that instead of exhibiting conchoidal fracture they simply exhibit irregular fracture. Irregular fracture is a standard term for fractures that do not exhibit any of the qualities of the other fracture types. In introductory geology, the key fracture types to remember are irregular, which most minerals exhibit, and conchoidal, seen in quartz.
Hardness
Hardness is the strength with which a mineral resists its surface being scraped or punctured. In working with hand samples without specialized tools, mineral hardness is specified by the Mohs hardness scale. The Mohs hardness scale is based 10 reference minerals, from talc the softest (Mohs hardness of 1), to diamond the hardest (Mohs hardness of 10). It is a relative, or nonlinear, scale. A hardness of 2.5 simply means that the mineral is harder than gypsum (Mohs hardness of 2) and softer than calcite (Mohs hardness of 3). To compare the hardness of two minerals see which mineral scratches the surface of the other.
Crystal Shape
All minerals are crystalline, but only some have the opportunity to exhibit the shapes of their crystals, their crystal forms. Many minerals in an introductory geology lab do not exhibit their crystal form. If a mineral has space while it grows, it may form natural crystals, with a crystal shape reflecting the geometry of the mineral’s internal crystal lattice. The shape of a crystal follows the symmetry of its crystal lattice. Quartz, for instance, forms six-sided crystals, showing the hexagonal symmetry of its crystal lattice. There are two complicating factors to remember here: (1) minerals do not always form nice crystals when they grow, and (2) a crystal face is different from a cleavage surface. A crystal face forms during the growth of the mineral. A cleavage surface is formed when the mineral is broken.
Special Properties
There are some properties that only help to distinguish a small number of minerals, or even just a single mineral. An example of such a special property is the effervescent reaction of calcite to a weak solution of hydrochloric acid (5% HCl). Calcite fizzes or effervesces as the HCl solution dissolves it and creates CO 2 gas. Calcite is easy to identify even without testing the reaction to HCl, by its hardness, luster and cleavage.
Another special property is magnetism. This can be tested by seeing if a small magnet responds to the mineral. The most common mineral that is strongly magnetic is the mineral magnetite. A special property that shows up in some sample of plagioclase feldspar is its tendency to exhibit striations on cleavage surfaces. Striations are perfectly straight, fine, parallel lines. Magnification may be required to see striations on plagioclase cleavage surfaces. Other special properties may be encountered on a mineral to mineral basis.
How to Identify Minerals
First, you need good light and a hand lens or magnifying glass. A hand lens is a small, double-lens magnifying glass that has a magnification power of at least 8X and can be purchased at some bookstores and nature stores.
Minerals are identified on the basis of their physical properties, which have been described in the the previous section. To identify a mineral, you look at it closely. At a glance, calcite and quartz look similar. Both are usually colorless, with a glassy luster. However, their other properties they are completely different. Quartz is much harder, hard enough to scratch glass. Calcite is soft, and will not scratch glass. Quartz has no mineral cleavage and fractures the same irregular way glass breaks. Calcite has three cleavage directions which meet at angles other than 90°, so it breaks into solid pieces with perfectly flat, smooth, shiny sides.
When identifying a mineral, you must:
- Look at it closely on all visible sides to see how it reflects light
- Test its hardness
- Identify its cleavage or fracture
- Name its luster
- Evaluate any other physical properties necessary to determine the mineral’s identity
In the minerals tables that accompanies this section, the minerals are grouped according to their luster and color. They are also classified on the basis of their hardness and their cleavage or fracture. If you can identify several of these physical properties, you can identify the mineral.
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Contributors and Attributions
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Original content from Kimberly Schulte (Columbia Basin College) and supplemented by Lumen Learning . The content on this page is copyrighted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.


2.1: A First Example
Let’s begin our study by developing some intuition about what groups actually are. To get started, we will explore the game Spinpossible, which used to be available for iOS and Android devices.* The game is played on a \(3\times 3\) board of scrambled tiles numbered 1 to 9, each of which may be right-side-up or up-side-down. The objective of the game is to return the board to the standard configuration where tiles are arranged in numerical order and right-side-up. This is accomplished by a sequence of “spins", where a spin consists of rotating an \(m\times n\) subrectangle by 180 \(^\circ\) . The goal is to minimize the number of spins used. The following figure depicts a scrambled board on the left and the solved board on the right. The sequence of arrows is used to denote some sequence of spins that transforms the scrambled board into the solved board.
* If you’d like to play the game, try going here: https://www.kongregate.com/games/spinpossible . ↩
Let's play with an example. Suppose we start with the following scrambled board.
The underlines on the numbers are meant to help us tell whether a tile is right-side-up or up-side-down. Our goal is to use a sequence of spins to unscramble the board. Before we get started, let’s agree on some conventions. When we refer to tile \(n\) , we mean the actual tile that is labeled by the number \(n\) regardless of its position and orientation on the board. On the other hand, position \(n\) will refer to the position on the board that tile \(n\) is supposed to be in when the board has been unscrambled. For example, in the board above, tile 1 is in position 3 and tile 7 happens to be in position 7.
It turns out that there are multiple ways to unscramble this board, but I have one particular sequence in mind. First, let’s spin the rectangle determined by the two rightmost columns. Here’s what we get. I’ve shaded the subrectangle that we are spinning.
Okay, now let’s spin the middle column.
Hopefully, you can see that we are really close to unscrambling the board. All we need to do is spin the rectangle determined by the tiles in positions 1 and 2.
Putting all of our moves together, here is what we have.
In this case, we were able to solve the scrambled board in 3 moves. It’s not immediately obvious, but it turns out that there is no way to unscramble the board in fewer than 3 spins. However, there is at least one other solution that involves exactly 3 spins.
[prob:number_spinpossible_boards] How many scrambled \(3\times 3\) Spinpossible boards are there? To answer this question, you will need to rely on some counting principles such as factorials. In this context, we want to include the solved board as one of the scrambled boards—it’s just not very scrambled.
How many spins are there?
It’s useful to have some notation. Let \(s_{ij}\) denote the spin that rotates the subrectangle that has position \(i\) in the upper-left corner and position \(j\) in the lower-right corner. As an example, the sequence of spins that we used above to unscramble our initial scrambled board is \[s_{29}\to s_{28} \to s_{12}.\] As you noticed in Problem \(\PageIndex{2}\), we can also rotate a single tile. Every spin of the form \(s_{ii}\) is called a toggle . For example, \(s_{44}\) toggles the tile in position 4.
We can think of each spin as a function and since we are doing spins on top of spins, every sequence of spins corresponds to a composition of functions. We will follow the standard convention of function composition that says the function on the right goes first. In this case, our previous sequence of spins becomes \(s_{12} \circ s_{28} \circ s_{29}\) , which we abbreviate as \(s_{12} s_{28} s_{29}\) . This might take some getting used to, but just remember that it is just like function notation—stuff on the right goes first. We will refer to expressions like \(s_{12} s_{28} s_{29}\) as words in the alphabet \(\{s_{ij}\mid i\text{ upper left corner}, j\text{ lower right corner of subrectangle}\}\) . Our words will always consist of a finite number of spins.
Every word consisting of spins corresponds to a function that takes a scrambled board as input and returns a scrambled board. We say that the words “act on" the scrambled boards. For each word, there is an associated net action . For example, the word \(s_{12} s_{23} s_{12}\) corresponds to swapping the positions but not orientation of the tiles in positions 1 and 3. You should take the time to verify this for yourself. Notice that the net action does not depend on the current configuration of the board. Sometimes it is difficult to describe what the net action associated to a word is, but there is always some corresponding net action nonetheless. Moreover, each net action has many—infinitely many, in fact—words that determine that net action. For example, it turns out that \(s_{12}s_{23}s_{12}\) , \(s_{23}s_{12}s_{23}\) , and \(s_{12}s_{23}s_{11}s_{11}s_{12}\) all yield the same net action. In this case, we would write \[s_{12}s_{23}s_{12}=s_{23}s_{12}s_{23}=s_{12}s_{23}s_{11}s_{11}s_{12}.\] Notice that equality here is referring to net action and not the words themselves. That is, the words are different, but the result is the same.
It is worth pointing out that \(s_{12} s_{23} s_{12}\) is not itself a spin. However, sometimes a composition of spins will yield a spin. For example, the net action of \(s_{12} s_{11} s_{12}\) is toggling the tile in position 2. That is, \(s_{12} s_{11} s_{12}=s_{22}\) .
Find a sequence of 3 spins that is different from the one we described earlier that unscrambles the following board. Write your answer as a word consisting of spins.
What is the net action that corresponds to the word \(s_{23} s_{12} s_{23}\) ? What can you conclude about \(s_{23} s_{12} s_{23}\) compared to \(s_{12} s_{23} s_{12}\) ?
We can also use exponents to abbreviate. For example, \(s_{23}^2\) is the same as \(s_{23} s_{23}\) (which in this case is the net action of doing nothing) and \((s_{12} s_{23})^2\) is the same as \(s_{12} s_{23} s_{12} s_{23}\) .
It turns out that there is an even simpler word (i.e., a shorter word) that yields the same net action as \((s_{12} s_{23})^2\) . Can you find one?
Define \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) to be the collection of net actions that we can obtain from words consisting of spins. We say that the set of spins generates \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) and we refer to the set of spins as a generating set for \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) .
Suppose \(s_{x_1}s_{x_2}\cdots s_{x_n}\) and \(s_{y_1}s_{y_2}\cdots s_{y_m}\) are both words consisting of spins. Then the corresponding net actions, say \(u\) and \(v\) , respectively, are elements of \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) . Prove that the composition of the actions \(u\) and \(v\) is an element of \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) .
The previous problem tells us that the composition of two net actions from \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) results in another net action in \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) . Formally, we say that \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) is closed under composition.
It is clear that we can construct an infinite number of words consisting of spins, but since there are a finite number of ways to rearrange the positions and orientations of the tiles of the \(3\times 3\) board, there are only a finite number of net actions arising from these words. That is, \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) is a finite set of functions.
Verify that \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) contains an identity function, i.e., a function whose net action is “do nothing." What happens if we compose a net action from \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) with the identity?
A natural question to ask is whether every possible scrambled Spinpossible board can be unscrambled using only spins. In other words, is \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) sufficient to unscramble every scrambled board? It turns out that the answer is yes.
Verify that \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) is sufficient to unscramble every scrambled board by describing an algorithm that will always unscramble a scrambled board. It does not matter whether your algorithm is efficient. That is, we don’t care how many steps it takes to unscramble the board as long as it works in a finite number of steps. Using your algorithm, what is the maximum number of spins required to unscramble any scrambled board?
In a 2011 paper, Alex Sutherland and Andrew Sutherland (a father and son team) present a number of interesting results about Spinpossible and list a few open problems. You can find the paper at http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.6645 . As a side note, Alex is one of the developers of the game and his father, Andrew, is a mathematics professor at MIT. Using a brute-force computer algorithm, the Sutherlands verified that every scrambled \(3\times 3\) Spinpossible board can be solved in at most 9 moves. However, a human readable mathematical proof of this fact remains elusive. By the way, mathematics is chock full of open problems and you can often get to the frontier of what is currently known without too much trouble. Mathematicians are in the business of solving open problems.
Instead of unscrambling boards, we can act on the solved board with an action from \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) to obtain a scrambled board. Problem \(\PageIndex{8}\) tells us that we can use \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) to get from the solved board to any scrambled board. In fact, starting with the solved board makes it clear that there is a one-to-one correspondence between net actions and scrambled boards.
What is the size of \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) ? That is, how many net actions are in \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) ?
Let’s make a couple more observations. First, every spin is reversible. That is, every spin has an inverse . In the case of Spinpossible, we can just apply the same spin again to undo it. For example, \(s_{12}^2\) is the same as doing nothing. This means that the inverse of \(s_{12}\) , denoted \(s_{12}^{-1}\) , is \(s_{12}\) itself. Symbolically, we write \(s_{12}^{-1}=s_{12}\) . Remember that we are exploring the game Spinpossible—it won’t always be the case that repeating an action will reverse the action.
In the same vein, every sequence of spins is reversible. For example, if we apply \(s_{12} s_{23}\) (i.e., do \(s_{23}\) first followed by \(s_{12}\) ), we could undo the net action by applying \(s_{23} s_{12}\) because \[(s_{12} s_{23})^{-1}=s_{23}^{-1} s_{12}^{-1}=s_{23} s_{12}\] since \(s_{23}^{-1}=s_{23}\) and \(s_{12}^{-1}=s_{12}\) . Notice that the first equality is an instantiation of the “socks and shoes theorem", which states that if \(f\) and \(g\) are functions with compatible domain and codomain, then \[(f\circ g)^{-1} = g^{-1}\circ f^{-1}.\] The upshot is that the net action that corresponds to a word consisting of spins can be reversed by applying “socks and shoes" and is itself an action.
Imagine we started with the solved board and then you scrambled the board according to some word consisting of spins. Let’s call this word \(w\) . How could you obtain the solved board from the scrambled board determined by \(w\) ? How is this related to \(w^{-1}\) ?
There is one detail we have been sweeping under the rug. Notice that every time we wrote down a word consisting of two or more spins, we didn’t bother to group pairs of adjacent spins using parentheses. Recall that the composition of functions with compatible domains and codomains is associative (see Theorem 2.2.1 ). That is, if \(f\) , \(g\) , and \(h\) are functions with compatible domains and codomains, then \[(f\circ g)\circ h = f\circ (g\circ h).\] Since composition of spins is really just function composition, composition of spins is also associative. And since the spins generate \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) , the composition of net actions from \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) is associative, as well.
Does the order in which you apply spins matter? Does it always matter? Let’s be as specific as possible. If the order in which we apply two spins does not matter, then we say that the spins commute . However, if the order does matter, then the spins do not commute. When will two spins commute? When will they not commute? Provide some specific examples.
In the previous problem, you discovered that the composition of two spins may or may not commute. Since the spins generate \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) , the composition of two net actions may or may not commute. We say that \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) is not commutative.
Let’s collect our key observations about \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) .
- Generating Set: The set of spins generates \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) . That is, every net action from \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) corresponds to a word consisting of spins. 1
- Closure: The composition of any two net actions from \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) results in a net action from \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) .
- Associative: The composition of net actions from \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) is associative.
- Identity: There is an identity in \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) whose corresponding net action is “do nothing".
- Inverses: Every net action from \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) has an inverse net action in \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) . Composing a net action and its inverse results in the identity.
- The composition of two net actions from \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) may or may not commute.
It turns out that \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) is an example of a group. Loosely speaking, a group is a set together with a method for combining two elements together that satisfies conditions (2), (3), (4), and (5) above. More formally, a group is a nonempty set together with an associative binary operation such that the set contains an identity element and every element in the set has an inverse that is also in the set. As we shall see, groups can have a variety of generating sets, possibly of different sizes. Also, some groups are commutative and some groups are not.
Before closing out this section, let’s tackle a few more interesting problems concerning Spinpossible. We say that a generating set \(S\) for a group is a minimal generating set if \(S\setminus\{x\}\) is no longer a generating set for the group for all \(x\in S\) .
Determine whether the set of spins is a minimal generating set for \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) .
- *
-
The case of Spinpossible is a little misleading. Since each spin is its own inverse, we never need to write words consisting of spins with inverses. However, as we shall see later, there are situations outside the context of Spinpossible where we will need to utilize inverses of elements from a generating set.
It’s not too difficult to prove—but we will omit the details—that we can generate \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) with the following subset of 9 spins: \[T=\{s_{11}, s_{12}, s_{23}, s_{36}, s_{56}, s_{45}, s_{47}, s_{78}, s_{89}\}.\] That is, every net action in \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\) corresponds to a word consisting of the spins from \(T\) . Try to take a moment to convince yourself that this is at least plausible.
For each of the following spins, find a word consisting of spins from the set \(T\) that yields the same net action.
- \(s_{33}\)
- \(s_{13}\)
- \(s_{14}\)
Taking for granted that \(T\) is a generating set for \(\text{Spin}_{3\times 3}\), determine whether \(T\) is a minimal generating set.


4.1: Pirate Code for Engineering Ethics
Module Introduction
In this module, you will learn about professional and occupational codes of ethics by looking at a bad code, writing your own code, and then critically examine a professional code of ethics, the engineering code for the Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico. Three exercises will take you through the process of examining the Pirate Creed, writing your own code, and examining the Colegio’s code. Text boxes will provide helpful background information on purposes served by professional codes, philosophical objections, and a framework for working your way through a stakeholder-based code like that of the CIAPR or the National Society of Professional Engineers. This module provides a Spanish translation of the Pirate Creed prepared by Dr. Dana Livingston Collins of the Department of Humanities in the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
Concluding this module are two word documents uploaded as media files. One provides the exercises that are presented in this module in XML format. The other provides the background information that has been presented in this module as Textboxes.
Module Activities
- You will analyze the Pirate Creed in terms of (a) its different functions, (b) the community values it embodies, and (c) how it stands toward nonmembers of the pirate community as well as members.
- You will write a code of ethics for an occupational or professional area such as business or engineering.
- You will debrief the rest of the class on your group's code, clarify its functions and values, and defend it if necessary.
- This module will conclude with a look at the code of ethics of the Puerto Rico State Society of Professional Engineers and Land surveyors or Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico.
Pirates Creed of Ethics (translated into Spanish by Dana Collins)
- El capitán tendrá comando total durante una batalla y tendrá la autoridad para dirigir el barco. El que no sigua al capitán podrá ser castigado se la tripulación no vota en contra del castigo.
- Si el barco naufraga, la tripulación permanecerá unidos hasta el capitán consigue otra nave. Si la nave es propiedad común de la tripulación, la primera nave capturada pertenecerá al capitán con una (1) parte de botín.
- El cirujano del barco recibirá doscientas (200) coronas para el mantenimiento de su equipo médico y recibirá una (1) parte del botín.
- Los otros oficiales recibirán una (1) parte cada uno, y si se distinguen, la tripulación determinará cuanto recibirán como recompensa.
- El botín de una nave capturada será distribuido en partes iguales.
- El primero que señale la aparición de un barco que sea capturado recibirá cien (100) coronas.
- El que pierda un ojo, una mano, o una pierna mientras está en servicio, recibirá hasta seis esclavos o seiscientas (600) coronas.
- Los suministros y raciones serán compartidos por igual.
- La penalidad por traer una mujer disfrazada a bordo es la muerte.
- Si un hermano roba de otro, perderá su nariz u orejas. Se peca de nuevo, se le darán un mosquete, municiones, plomo y una botella de agua y será abandonado en una isla.
- Si hay duda en una disputa entre hermanos, una corte de honor determinará el veredicto. Si un hermano es encontrado culpable, la primera vez será perdonado, pero al ofender de nuevo, será atado a un cañón y recibirá un latigazo de cada miembro de la tripulación. El mismo castigo será dado a todos, incluyendo oficiales, quienes se emborrachen al punto de perder sus sentidos mientras estén en el barco.
- El que se duerma mientras está trabajando como centinela, recibirán latigazos por todos los miembros de la tripulación. Se repite el crimen, su cabeza será rajada.
- A todos quienes conspiren para desertar, o lo que hayan desertado y sean capturados, sus cabezas serán rajadas.
- Pelas entre varios hermanos mientras estén a bordo será resueltos en tierra con pistolas y espadas. El que saque primera sangre será el vencedor. No pueden golpear a otro mientras estén a bordo de la nave.
Exercise 1: Pirate Creed
- What is good about the Pirate Creed of Ethics?
- what is bad about the Pirate Creed of Ethics?
- What is the purpose of the Creed for the Pirate Community?
- What values are embedded in the Pirate Creed
- How does the Pirate Creed deal with nonmembers?
Exercise 2: Writing a Code of Ethics for Engineers
- Step One: Identify the purpose of your engineering code of ethics. For example, is it to punish wrongful behavior, provide a set of guidelines, educate the community, support ethical behavior, or create an ethics dialogue?
- Step Two: Identify the contributions that engineering makes to society.
- Step Three: Identify the stakeholders of the engineering profession. A stakeholder is any group or individual with a vital or essential interest tied to what engineers do. along with these stakeholders, identify their stakes, that is, the goods, rights, interests or values that are maintained, promoted, or diminished by what engineers do?
- Step Four: Enumerate the obligations or duties that engineers have toward each of these stakeholders. In other words, what can engineers do to maintain, promote, or diminish the stakes of each stakeholder?
- Step Five: Identify the conflicting obligations that arise from the fact that engineers have different stakeholders who hold conflicting stakes? Do any of these stakeholders or stakes have obvious priority over the others?
- Step Six: Step back and reflect on what you have written. For example, look for different kinds of provisions. Does your code use ideals of the profession which set forth the profession's central or cardinal objectives? Does your code contain principles of professional conduct which set forth minimal levels of behavior and prerscribe sanctions and punishments for compliance failures? In the CIAPR (Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico) code of ethics, the fundamental principles and basic canons set forth the ideals of the profession. The principles of professional conduct fall in the section on practical norms.
- Step Seven: The Final Audit. Submit your code to an overall audit to see if anything has been left out. Have you included all the stakeholders and their stakes? Have you left out any ethical considerations such as rights and duties? Compare your code to the law. Are your code's provisions legal? Do they overlap with existing law? Do they imply criticisms of existing laws? If they imply punishments or sanctions, what measures does your code prescribe to administer justly and properly these sanctions? Finally, be sure to guard against the equal but opposite sins of over-specificity and too much generality. Overly specific codes try to provide a rule for every possible situation. Because this is impossible, these codes tend toward rigidity, inflexibility, and irrelevance. Codes that are too general fail because they can be interpreted to rationalize any kind of claim and, thus, mask immoral actions and intentions.
Exercise 3: Studying the code of Ethics of the Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico
- Identify the provisions that touch upon the relation of the engineer to the public. What goods are at stake in this relation? What can engineers do to preserve or promote these goods?
- Identify provisions that touch upon the relation of the engineer to the client. What goods are at stake in this relation? What can engineers do to preserve or promote these goods?
- Identify provisions that touch upon the relation of the engineer to the CIAPR (professional engineering society) What goods are at stake in this relation? what can engineers do to preserve or promote these goods?.
- Finally, identify provisions that touch upon the relation of the engineer to other engineers (peer relations). What goods are at stake in this relation? What can engineers do to preserve or promote these goods?
Textbox 1: Code of Ethics of Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico State society of Professional Eng
- The CIAPR code of ethics has three parts:
- Part One: Three Fundamental Principles which express cardinal objectives for engineering practice in Puerto Rico
- Part Two: Ten Canons which set forth general rules for ethical engineering practice
- Part Three: Each canon is repeated followed by several practical norms. by setting forth detailed rules, practical norms specify and interpret the basic canons. They also set forth specific and concrete rules for professional and ethical conduct
- The CIAPR code of ethics is a stakeholder code. This means it identifies engineering stakeholders, the goods they depend upon, and the duties engineers have in protecting or promoting these goods.
Key Engineer Relations
- The relation between engineer and public is founded on the goods of health, safety and welfare.
- The relation between engineer and client is founded on the good of faithful agency (trust).
- The relation between the individual engineer and the profession is founded on the engineer working to maintain the good reputation and integrity of the profession.
- The peer relation between practicing engineers is founded on the good of collegiality.
Engineer and Public
- Duties arising in this relation are tied to maintaining or promoting the goods of health, safety, and welfare. They include minimizing harm, avoiding paternalism (making decisions for others who have the right and ability to make these for themselves), free and informed consent (the right of those taking a risk to consent to that risk).
- FP1: Deberán considerar su principal función como profesionales la de servir a la humanidad. Su relación como professional y cliente, y como professional y patrono, deberá estar sujeta a su función fundamental de promover el bienestar de la humanidad y la de proteger el interés público.
- Canon 1: Velar por sobre toda otra consideración por la seguridad, el ambiente, la salud y el bienestar de la comunidad en la ejecución de sus responsabilidades profesionales.
- Practical Norm 1d: Cuando tengan conocimiento o suficiente razón para creer que otro ingeniero o agrimensor viola las disposiciones de este Código, o que una persona o firma pone en peligro la seguridad, el ambiente, la salud o el bienestar de la comunidad, presentarán tal información por escrito a las autoridades concernidas y cooperarán con dichas autoridades proveyendo aquella información o asistencia que les sea requerida.
Engineer to Client
- Duties stemming from this relation arise out of faithful agency, that is, the responsibility of an engineer to remain true to the client's interests. Positively this includes exercising due care for the client by carrying out the client's interests through the exercise of sound, competent engineering professional judgment. Negatively this entails avoiding conflicts of interest and revealing the client's confidential information.
- Faithful Agency: Canon 4—Actuar en asuntos profesionales para cada patrono o cliente como agentes fieles o fiduciarios, y evitar conflictos de intereses o la mera apariencia de éstos, manteniendo siempre la independencia de criterio como base del profesionalismo.
- Conflict of Interest: 4a—Evitarán todo conflicto de intereses conocido o potencial con sus patronos o clientes e informarán con prontitud a sus patronos o clientes sobre cualquier relación de negocios, intereses o circunstancias que pudieran influenciar su juicio o la calidad de sus servicios.
- Confidentiality: 4i—Tratarán toda información, que les llegue en el curso de sus encomiendas profesionales, como confidencial y no usarán tal información como medio para lograr beneficio personal si tal acción es adversa a los intereses de sus clientes, de sus patronos, de las comisiones o juntas a las que pudiera pertenecer o del público.
Engineer to Profession
- This includes working to promote the profession's autonomy and independence as well as maintaining its good reputation. Moreover it requires that engineers participate in their professional society, work to advance engineering, be objective and impartial in their work, and associate only with persons of good reputation.
- Canon 3: Emitir declaraciones públicas únicamente en una forma veraz y objetiva.
- Practical Norm 3a: Serán objetivos y veraces en informes profesionales, declaraciones o testimonios. Incluirán toda la información relevante y pertinente en tales informes, declaraciones o testimonios.
Engineer to Engineer
- This relation is based on the good of Collegiality. It requires that engineers work to maintain friendly and collaborative relations with other engineers by avoiding disloyal competition and comparative advertising and by always giving peers due credit for their contributions to engineering projects and designs.
- Practical Norm 4l: Antes de realizar trabajos para otros, en los cuales puedan hacer mejoras, planos, diseños, inventos, u otros registros, que puedan justificar la obtención de derechos de autor o patentes, llegarán a un acuerdo en relación con los derechos de las respectivas partes. (Give due credit to colleagues for their work).
- Canon 5: Edificar su reputación profesional en el mérito de sus servicios y no competir deslealmente con otros. (Avoid disloyal competition)
- Practical Norm 6b: Anunciarán sus servicios profesionales sin auto-alabanza y sin lenguaje engañoso y de una manera en que no se menoscabe la dignidad de sus profesiones. (Non-comparative advertising)
- Practical Norm 5h: No tratarán de suplantar, ni suplantarán otro ingeniero o agrimensor, después de que una gestión profesional le haya sido ofrecida o confiada a éste, ni tampoco competirá injustamente con él. (Avoid disloyal competition)
Professional Codes as Social Contracts
- What some have said about defining ethics could also be applied to defining a profession: it's a bit like "nailing jello to a tree." Nevertheless, we can make to reasonable claims about professions: tye can be treated as social contracts, and they have someting to do with specialized knowledge. If these two claims hold, then a third claim can be made, namely, that professions have an ineliminable ethical dimension.
- A legitimate contract between two parties requires a quid pro quo (a mutually beneficial exchange) and free consent (consent that includes full information and excludes force or deception). The social contract between engineering and society can be pictured in the following way:
| Society grants to Profession | Profession grants to Society |
| Autonomy | Self-Regulation |
| Prestige | Primacy of public health, safety, and welfare |
| Monopoly | Developing and enforcing ethical and professional standards |
Society grants autonomy, prestige, and monopoly control to the profession of engineering.
- Autonomy includes freedom from regulation and control from the outside through cumbersome laws, regulations, and statutes.
- Prestige includes high social status and generous pay.
- Monopoly status implies that the profession of engineering itself determines who can practice engineering and how it should be practiced.
- The profession promises to use its autonomy responsibly by regulating itself. it does this by developing and enforcing professional and ethical standards. By granting prestige to the profession, society has removed the need for the profession to collectively bargain for its self-interest.
- Not having to worry about its collective self-interest, the profession is now free to hold paramount the health, safety, and welfare of the public.
- This contract explains why professions develop codes of ethics. Codes document to the public the profession's commitment to carry out its side of the social contract, namely, to hold paramount public welfare. They can do this because society will honor its side of the contract, namely, to remove from the profession the need to fight for its self-interest
This social contract is more symbolic and explanatory than real.
- Codes allow the profession to document to society that it has developed proper standards and intends to enforce them. They express the profession's trust in society to keep its side of the bargain by granting autonomy, prestige, and monopoly. Of course this contract has never been explicitly enacted at a point in historical time. But the notion of a social contract with a mutually beneficial exchange (a quid pro quo) provides a useful device for modeling the relation that has actually evolved between society and its professions.
Professions and Responsibility
- Professions have been created to exercise stewardship over knowledge and skill domains.
- Exercising stewardship over X generally means watching over, preserving, protecting, and even improving X. Stewardship is a forward-looking kind of responsibility similar to the responsibility that a parent exercises toward his or her children. The steward is a trusted servant or agent of the landowner who acts in the owner's place while the later is absent or incapacitated.
- "Stewardship," thus, refers to the profession's responsibility to safeguard its specific domain of knowledge and skill. This domain is essential to society in some way (it provides society with a basic, common good) and society delegates responsibility for this domain to its members who are specially suited to exercise it.
- So, generally speaking, professions can be characterized in terms of epistemological and ethical responsibilities.
- The epistemological responsibility refers to stewardship over the knowledge and skills that characterizes the profession. The profession preserves, transmit, and advances this domain of knowledge and skill. (Epistemology = study of knowledge.)
- The ethical dimension refers to the responsibility of the profession to safeguard knowledge and skill for the good of society. Society trusts the profession to do this for the sake of the comnmon good. Society also trusts the profession to regulate its own activities by developing and enforcing ethical and professional standards.
Objections to and Mischievous Side Effects of Codes of Ethics
These objections are taken from John Ladd, "The Quest for a Code of Professional Ethics: An Intellectual and Moral Confusion." This article can be found in Deborah G. Johnson, editor, (1991) Ethical Issues in Engineering, New Jersey: Prentice Hall: 130-136. The author of this module has taken some liberties in this presentation.
- Codes "confuse ethics with law-making" (Ladd, 130). Ethics is deliberative and argumentative while law-making focuses on activities such as making and enforcing rules and policies.
- A code of ethics is an oxymoron. Ethics requires autonomy of the individual while a code assumes the legitimacy of an external authority imposing rule and order on that individual.
- Obedience to moral law for autonomous individuals is motivated by respect for the moral law. On the other hand, obedience to civil law is motivated by fear of punishment. Thus, Ladd informs us that when one attaches "discipinary procedures, methods of adjudication and sanctions, formal and informal, to the principles that one calls 'ethical' one automatically converts them into legal rules or some other kind of authoritative rules of conduct...."(Ladd 131) Accompanying code provisions with punishments replaces obedience based on respect for the (moral) law with conformity based on fear of punishment.
- Codes lead to the dangerous tendency to reduce the ethical to the legal. Ethical principles can be used to judge or evaluate a disciplinary or legal code. But the reverse is not true; existing laws cannot trump ethical principles in debates over ethical issues and ethical decisions. As Ladd puts it, "That is not to say that ethics has no relevance for projects involving the creation, certification and enforcement of rules of conduct for members of certain groups....[I]ts [ethics's] role in connection with these projects is to appraise, criticize and perhaps even defend (or condemn) the projects themselves, the rules, regulations and procedures they prescribe, and the social and political goals and institutions they represent." (Ladd 130)
- Codes have been used to justify immoral actions. Professional codes have been misued by individuals to justify actions that go against common morality. For example, lawyers may use the fact that the law is an adversarial system to justify lying. Ladd responds in the following way to this dodge: "{T}here is no special ethics belonging to professionals. Professionals are not, simply because they are professionals, exempt from the common obligations, duties and responsibilities that are binding on ordinary people. They do not have a special moral status that allows them to do things that no one else can." (Ladd 131)
Mischievous Side-Effects of Codes (from John Ladd)
- Codes make professionals complacent. (Ladd 135) First, they reduce the ethical to the minimally acceptable. Second, they cover up wrongful actions or policies by calling them--within the context of the code--"ethical". For example, the NSPE code of ethics used to prohibit competitive bidding. Enshrining it in their code of ethics gave it the appearance of being ethical when in fact it was motivated primarily by self interest. This provision was removed when it was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court for violating the Anti-Trust law.
- Because codes focus on micro-ethical problems, "they tend to divert attention from macro-ethical problems of a profession." (Ladd 135) For example, in Puerto Rico, the actions of the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de Puerto Rico tend to focus on individual engineers who violate code provisions concerned with individual acts of corruption; these include conflicts of interest, failing to serve as faithful agents or trustees, and participating in corrupt actions such as taking or giving bribes. On the other hand, the CIAPR does not place equal attention on macro-ethical problems such as "the social responsibilities of professionals as a group" (Ladd 132), the role of the profession and its members in society (Ladd 135), and the "role professions play in determining the use of technology, its development and expansion, and the distribution of the costs." (Ladd 135)
Exercise: Questions for Reflection
- Which of Ladd's criticisms apply to the Pirate Creed?
- How does your group's code of ethics stand in relation to Ladd's criticisms?
- Do Ladd's objections apply t the ABET, NSPE, or CIAPR codes?


1.3: Faculty Expectations of Students
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Important Note: To help students understand more about what the UT Arlington faculty members expect of their new college students, the Academy of Distinguished Teachers, a committee of UT Arlington’s award-winning professors, collaborated to write this section for you.
Faculty expectations of students are focused on two primary areas: (1) interacting with the subject matter and (2) developing and maintaining respectful relationships.
Focus #1: Interacting with the Subject Matter
One of our goals as university professors is to help students become knowledgeable in a specific topic or subject area that is applicable to life situations or relevant for future learning. For example, English majors learn about poetic structures, writing styles, different types of literature, and strategies for writing a thought- provoking essay. In contrast, nursing majors learn about pathophysiology, medications, disease processes, and techniques for providing nursing care. We want students to integrate the acquired knowledge into their own lives. English majors gain an appreciation for a historic novel, and nursing majors use their course readings and lab practice to assess a patient. Because we have this goal for you as a student, we have higher expectations of you and your work as a college student. Most importantly, you, the student, are expected to take responsibility for your own learning. One UT Arlington professor conveyed this idea in this way: “taking ownership of your education, being proactive to maximize your learning.”
Higher Standards in Thinking: The Universal Intellectual Standards
Thinking about the quality of your thinking and reasoning—a process often referred to as metacognition—is one of the best ways to begin stretching your critical thinking. Consider this list of Universal Intellectual Standards and associated questions as ways to develop deeper levels of thinking.
- Clarity: Oftentimes, you cannot determine if something is accurate or relevant unless you have more information. Ask, “Can you elaborate further on that point?” or “Can you give me an illustration, example, etc.?”
- Accuracy: A statement can be clearly presented, but then you have to ask, “Is it true?” In addition, ask, “How could we check that information?”
- Precision: A statement might be true and even accurate, but then you must ask, “Can you be more specific?” or “Can you give me more details?”
- Relevance: Statements may be clear, true, and precise, but that does not necessarily mean the information presented is relevant to the discussion at hand. Ask, “How is that information connected to the question?”
- Depth: Some statements can be superficial, such as the “Just Say No!” campaign. It is a clear, accurate, precise, and relevant statement, but it lacks depth into the issue and reasons for drug use. Ask questions like, “Are you taking into account the problems in the question?” or “Are their complexities not being considered?”
- Breadth: Statements may not include all points of view. Ask questions like, “What would this look like from a conservative or liberal point of view?” or “Is there another way to look at the statement?”
- Logic: Often, as we are thinking, we are bringing information from many different locations and putting it together into a new thought. Ask questions like, “Does it make sense?” or “Does that thought follow from what was presented previously?”
Adapted from Paul, R. and Elder, L. (1996). Foundation for Critical Thinking, online at Web site www.criticalthinking.org/
So, what about grades? In short, we don’t assign grades: you earn them. As a college student, you will be assessed based on your performance (and not, for example, simply because you tried hard). Paying tuition provides access to learning opportunities but does not imply that a faculty member will give you a high grade merely for registering for and attending the course. Because grades are earned rather than given, you should expect learning to be hard work. At- tending classes is an important indicator that you value your investment and are committed to learning. Interaction with faculty members and fellow students is an essential part of the educational process that promotes personal and professional growth. Another indicator that you value your investment is the effort you make to complete assignments and readings on time. At the university, learning occurs at least as much outside of the classroom as it does inside the classroom. Between classes, we expect you to engage in study, reading, and thought—behaviors that require discipline and a commitment of significant amounts of time. In most cases, for every hour you spend in class (e.g., in a lecture), you should plan to spend at least three hours either preparing for or completing assignments for that class. If you’re spending 15 hours per week in class (approximately 5 courses), then your “homework” time should come to at least 45 hours each week—minimally.
Comments from Members of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers, UT Arlington
- Do your best and attempt to exceed your best. Just “getting by” shortchanges your significant financial investment in this course.
- As a professor, I give priority to this course in my schedule. I request that you do the same.
- Remember the more you put into the course, the more you will get out of it.
- Read widely, question, and analyze. You have the tasks of learn- ing and evaluating that content. Shoot for improving thinking skills such as evaluating, critiquing, and synthesizing, as well as learning facts. Try to look at the content from different perspectives. Additionally, read beyond the textbook as much as you can from the recommended reading list.
One part of being responsible for your own learning means that you will only submit class assignments you completed yourself. When you use information from a book, periodical, or the Internet, you must cite the source appropriately and list the source in the reference list or bibliography. In addition, you should never consult fellow students for answers or share your answers unless the assignment is being completed as part of a team project or the faculty member has clearly stated that collaboration is expected (Refer to “Chapter 6: Avoiding the Hazards Along the Way,” “Academic Integrity” section for more information). If you are unsure if you should consult with others on an assignment, it is acceptable to ask your professor.
Attending classes, completing all of your reading, and successfully completing your own work in each class requires self-discipline, time management, and organization. As a UT Arlington professor noted, “In recognition that you have many things going on in life, set time aside for this course each week for class attendance, reading and assignments and be sure to keep that time prioritized for this course.” Another faculty member noted that class attendance is especially important in professional schools because class interaction promotes professional socialization. Use a calendar program on a cell phone or computer to note when assignments are due, and schedule automatic reminders so that you start the assignment early enough to be able to complete it on time. Remember that obtaining library sources for a research project or reading 200 pages will take time. Be sure to allow time for each step of the process necessary to successfully complete the assignment. If you have questions, review the syllabus and class notes first so that, when you ask the teacher for more information, you are not asking for information that has already been provided.
Focus #2: Developing and Maintaining Respectful Relationships
We believe learning is more likely to occur in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Respectful communication includes calling professors by appropriate titles, speaking appropriately to fellow students, and minimizing classroom distractions, such as texting or browsing the Web during a class. Creating an atmosphere of interpersonal respect allows students to feel more secure and able to take the risk of being exposed to new ideas. Willingness to be exposed to ideas with which you may not be familiar or agree, provides opportunities to grow in knowledge and as a person. Classroom distractions such as noisily arriving late or carrying on side conversations interfere with the other students’ ability to learn. Missing classes also shows disrespect for the professor and for the course.
Your interaction with the subject matter and the maintenance of respectful relationships are essential for your intellectual growth toward critical thinking— the ability to appraise information for credibility and relevance and to integrate the new information with what you already know.
What Should I Call My Professor?
In high school, students typically address their teachers as “Mrs. X” or “Ms. Y” or “Mr. Z.” In the university context, however, knowing how to address an instructor becomes a bit more complicated. In nearly every case, it’s fully appropriate to refer to your instructor as “Professor So-and-So.” If, however, you know that your professor holds a doctoral degree, then it’s also appropriate to address him/ her as “Dr. So-and-So.” What’s important is that you use both a title (“Professor” or “Doctor”) and his/her last name. Doing so conveys not only respect for the instructor but also your knowledge of academic culture. By the way, there are some instructors on our campus who might prefer that you address them in a different way, using “Mr.” or “Ms.” or simply a first name. If so, feel free to do so—but don’t presume!
Thought Question
- How are college professors different from high school teachers?
- What do college professors expect from their students?


22.2: Jain Art
Jain Architecture
Jainism has played an important influence on the development of architectural styles in India.
Describe the popular themes and characteristics of Jain architecture
Key Points
- Jainism is a transtheistic religion prescribing non-violence toward all living beings; it originated in the Indian subcontinent in the 6th century BCE.
- Jainism has influenced and contributed to many artistic spheres in India, such as painting, sculpture, and architecture.
- Modern and medievial Jains built many temples, especially in western India. The earliest Jain monuments were temples based on the Brahmanical Hindu temple plan and monasteries for Jain monks.
- Among the earliest Jain monuments are the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves in Orissa, carved out as residential blocks for Jain monks during the reign of King Kharavela of Kalinga (193–170 BCE).
- Built under Chalukya rule in Rajasthan between the 11th and 13th centuries CE, the Dilwara Temple complex consists of five ornately carved marble temples, each dedicated to a different Tirthankara .
Key Terms
- iconography : The branch of art history that studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images.
- Tirthankara : A Jain term for a person who achieves enlightenment through asceticism and who then becomes a role model teacher for those seeking spiritual guidance.
Jainism
Jainism is a transtheistic religion prescribing non-violence toward all living beings. It originated in the Indian subcontinent in the 6th century BCE. Its founder Mahavira (c. 540–468 BCE) was born into a royal family but renounced worldly life to become an ascetic and establish the central tenets of Jainism.
Jainism found favor with the merchant classes and also with several powerful rulers. Chandragupta Maurya (born c. 340 BCE, ruled c. 320–298 BCE), the founder of the great Maurya Empire, had succeeded in conquering almost the entire Indian subcontinent; however he abdicated his throne at the age of 42 to become a Jain monk. Samprati, also an emperor of the Maurya dynasty and the grandson of Ashoka the Great (304–232 BCE) also became a Jain. Both Chandragupta and Samprati were responsible for spreading Jainism in southern and eastern India.
Jain Architecture
Modern and medieval Jains built many temples, especially in western India. The earliest Jain monuments were temples based on the Brahmanical Hindu temple plan and monasteries for Jain monks. For the most part, artists in ancient India belonged to non-denominational guilds who were prepared to lend their services to any patron , whether Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain. Many of the styles they used were a function of the time and place rather than the particular religion. Therefore, Jain art from this period is stylistically similar to Hindu or Buddhist art, although its themes and iconography are specifically Jain. With some minor variations, the western style of Indian art endured throughout the 16th century and into the 17th century. The rise in Islam contributed to the decline of Jain art but did not result in its total elimination.
Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves
Among the earliest Jain monuments are the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves, located near the city of Bhubaneshwar in Orissa, India. These caves are partly natural and partly manmade and were carved out as residential blocks for Jain monks during the reign of King Kharavela of Kalinga (193–170 BCE). The caves bear inscriptions and sculptural friezes depicting Tirthankaras, elephants, women, and geese.
The Dilwara Temples
Built under Chalukya rule in Rajasthan between the 11th and 13th centuries CE, the Dilwara Temple complex consists of five ornately carved marble temples, each dedicated to a different Tirthankara. The largest temple in the complex, the Vimal Vasahi Temple, was built in 1021 and is dedicated to the Tirthankara Rishabha. Among its most remarkable features are the rang manda , a grand hall supported by 12 pillars and surmounted by a breathtaking central dome , and the navchowki , a collection of nine rectangular ceilings, also richly carved. The pillars in the main hall are carved into the likenesses of women playing musical instruments and the 16 vidyadevis, or goddesses of knowledge; each holds a symbol representing her individual branch of learning.
Jain Sculpture
Jain sculpture is characterized most often by nude representations of saviors or deities in meditative postures.
Evaluate the motifs underlying Jain sculpture
Key Points
- Jain art is stylistically similar to Hindu or Buddhist art, although its themes and iconography are specifically Jain.
- Common themes in Jain painting and sculpture are the Tirthankaras , or saviors; the yakshas and yakshinis , or supernatural guardian deities, and symbols such as the lotus and the swastika, which represent peace and well-being.
- Ayagapata is a type of votive slab or tablet associated with worship in Jainism; the slabs are decorated with objects and designs central to Jain worship such as the stupa , dharmacakra, and triratna.
- The colossal monolithic statue of Bahubali, carved in 981 CE out of a single block of granite and standing 57 feet high, is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites for Jain worshipers.
Key Terms
- Tirthankara : A Jain term for a person who achieves enlightenment through asceticism and who then becomes a role model teacher for those seeking spiritual guidance.
- iconography : The branch of art history that studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images.
Themes within Jain Sculpture
For the most part, artists in ancient India belonged to non-denominational guilds who were prepared to lend their services to any patron , whether Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain. Many of the styles they used were a function of the time and place rather than the particular religion. Therefore, Jain art from this period is stylistically similar to Hindu or Buddhist art, although its themes and iconography are specifically Jain. With some minor variations, the western style of Indian art endured throughout the 16th century and into the 17th century. The rise in Islam contributed to the decline of Jain art but did not result in its total elimination.
Jain iconography mostly has a sage in sitting or standing meditative posture without any clothes. Popular themes and icons in Jain art include the Tirthankaras (Jain saviors, or human beings who achieved the ultimate spiritual salvation and served as role models for society), yakshas and yakshinis (supernatural male and female guardian deities), and holy symbols such as the lotus and the swastika, which symbolized peace and well-being.
Figures on various seals from the Indus Valley Civilization are similar to Jain images: nude and in a meditative posture. The earliest known Jain image is in the Patna museum, dated approximately to the 3rd century BCE. Bronze images of the 23rd Tirthankara, Pārśva, can be seen in the Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai, and in the Patna museum; these are dated to the 2nd century BCE. A sandalwood sculpture of Mahāvīra was carved during his lifetime, according to tradition. Later the practice of making images of wood was abandoned, with other materials being substituted.
Ayagapata
Ayagapata is a type of votive slab or tablet associated with worship in Jainism. Many of these stone tablets, some dating back to the 1st century CE, were discovered during excavations at ancient Jain sites such as Kankali Tila near Mathura , India. These slabs are decorated with objects and designs central to Jain worship such as the stupa, dharmacakra, and triratna, and were often used as offerings or for worship.
The Statue of Bahubali
A colossal monolithic statue of Bahubali at Shravanbelagola, the Jain siddha (one who has attained spiritual salvation), is located in Karnataka in southern India. This statue is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites for Jain worshipers. The statue was carved in 981 CE out of a single block of granite; it stands 57 feet high and is completely nude, as is customary in the Jain tradition.
Jain Illustrated Manuscripts
Jain illustrated manuscripts, originally painted on palm leaf, were characterized by sharp outlines and depictions of Jain saviors.
Discuss the characteristics of illustrated manuscripts produced by the Jain
Key Points
- Jain illustrated manuscripts were painted on palm leaf and relied on sharp outlines for effect, becoming progressively more angular and wiry until barely a trace of naturalism was left.
- The figures are shown in profile, as the full-face view was reserved for the Jain Tirthankaras . Only a few colors are used, including yellow, green, blue, black, and red.
- Common themes in Jain painting and sculpture are the Tirthankaras, or saviors; the yakshas and yakshinis, or supernatural guardian deities, and symbols such as the lotus and the swastika, which represent peace and well-being.
- The earliest illustrations were simple icons in small panels, but they gradually became more elaborate, depicting scenes from the lives of various Tirthankaras in detail.
- From the 14th century onward, the increased availability of paper allowed the production of larger and more elaborate Jain illustrated manuscripts.
Key Terms
- Tirthankara : A Jain term for a person who achieves enlightenment through asceticism and who then becomes a role model teacher for those seeking spiritual guidance.
- palm leaf : A material used for writing and the creation of manuscripts in South Asia and Southeast Asia dating back to the 5th century BCE, and possibly much earlier.
Illustrated Manuscripts in the Jain Tradition
A large number of illustrated manuscripts commissioned by members of the Jain community have survived from between the 1oth and 14th centuries, representing the Western Indian style of art. Painted on palm leaf, these illustrations relied on sharp outlines for effect, becoming progressively more angular and wiry until barely a trace of naturalism is left. The figures are shown in profile, as the full-face view was reserved for the Jain Tirthankaras . A common feature of this style is the projection of an eye beyond the face shown in profile, meant to indicate the second eye, which would not be visible in this position. Only a few colors are used, including yellow, green, blue, black, and red. The earliest illustrations were simple icons in small panels, but they gradually became more elaborate, depicting scenes from the lives of various Tirthankaras in detail.
Common themes in Jain painting and illustrated manuscript, similar to other forms of Jain art, include the Tirthankaras (Jain saviors, or human beings who achieved the ultimate spiritual salvation and served as role models for society), yakshas and yakshinis (supernatural male and female guardian deities), and holy symbols such as the lotus and the swastika, which symbolized peace and well-being.
The Tirthankaras
Most of the Jain paintings and illustrations depict historical events, known as Panch Kalyanaka, from the life of the Tirthankaras. Rishabha, the first Tirthankara, is usually depicted in either the lotus position or kayotsarga, the standing position. He is distinguished from other Tirthankara by the long locks of hair falling to his shoulders. Incidents of his life, such as his marriage and Indra marking his forehead, are often depicted in paintings; other paintings show him presenting a pottery bowl to his followers, painting a house, weaving, and being visited by his mother Marudevi. Each of the 24 Tirthankara is associated with distinctive emblems, which are listed in texts such as Tiloyapannati, Kahavaali, and Pravacanasaarodhara.
Advances Over Time
The increased availability of paper from the late 14th century enabled artists to paint more elaborate illustrations. A 15th century manuscript of Kalpasutra, a Jain text containing the biographies of the Tirthankaras, is particularly opulent. The text is written in gold and the margins are illuminated with figural patterns. Paintings in lavish blue, gold, and red, testifying to the wealth of the patron , often take up an entire page.
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