The Crystal Competition is meant to be a fun, learning, hands-on experience for high school students. To grow the largest best quality single crystal is the objective, but by participating and being involved in a practical scientific problem in which the result is a "gem" crystal is a reward in itself.

The idea is to grow a SINGLE CRYSTAL, not a bunch of crystals. It is therefore essential to avoid excessive rapid growth which encourages the formation of multiple crystals, not a single crystal.

The best single crystal will be judged on the basis of mass and quality as outlined below.

The quality is judged by experts who will rank the crystal on a scale of 1-10. A score of 10 will be given to a perfect gem quality crystal which fits the ideal crystal structure known for the chemical.

1. The crystal is weighed, and the mass M recorded.

( M = xx.xx g)

2. The relative mass score is then obtained by dividing the mass of the crystal by the mass of the largest SINGLE crystal of all those submitted for judging

i.e. Mrel = M/Mmax

3. The quality of the crystal is judged on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 representing a perfect crystal. The following factors will be considered in judging quality:
a) match/mismatch with crystal type (out of 2)
b) presence/absence of occlusions (out of 2)
c) intact/broken edges (out of 2)
d) well formed/misformed faces (out of 2)
e) clarity/muddiness (out of 2)

Total Quality Q = x.xx (out of 10)

4. The relative quality score is then obtained by dividing the quality score by the highest quality score.

i.e. Qrel = Q/Qmax

5. The total score is then determined as follows:

Total Score = log (100 Mrel) x 100 Qrel

The logarithm of the mass is chosen so that large poor quality crystals don't swamp out smaller good quality crystals.

The crystal with the highest score is the winning crystal.

For Example: