Rockhounding and Mineral Collecting

"Violane", the manganese rich violet to blue variety of diopside, is quite uncommon, found in Italy, Greece, and California, according to mindat.org.

Minerals have geometric shapes because that's how the crystals form.

Assuming by "galenite" you mean galena, the soft, shiny, very brittle lead sulfide, I would suggest that it's probably not the best idea. Though I have a hard time believing that anybody is making beads out of actual galena, which would be deeply impractical. It's not going to slay you overnight, but longterm skin contact with anything containing lead just isn't a good idea.

The official state stones of Tennessee are limestone and Tennessee Paint Rock Agate.

Halite, with a hardness of 2.5 on the Moh's Scale, is very soft.

The internal atomic structure.

Iron pyrites is commonly called "fools gold" since it is often mistaken for gold by people who do not know how to tell the difference.

Diamonds are weighed in carats, and pricing is highly variable, depending on factors like color, lack of flaws, total size, etc.

A moldy orange?

You're going to need to be a bit more specific than that.

celestite is a very heavy mineral. it comes from the south eastern coast of Africa on the island of Madagascar:)

Delaware does not have a state rock, or a state gemstone, but the state mineral is sillimanite.

Yes and no ..Gold has a Specific Gravity around 19 times the same amount of water. However, if you have a small thin flake of gold or flour gold you can often see these pieces of Gold float on water. This is caused by the Gold having a thin coating of oil on it from the natural oils that are on your hands. Also thin, small pieces of Gold can float due to what is called the "surface tension effect" to get Gold to sink prospectors will put a small amount of dishwashing detergent in their gold pans. That removes the oil from your hands as well as breaking the surface tension effect.

To sum it up...yes real Gold can float, but most Gold sinks.

both are the same clear is better and then clarity, though the blue tone is nicer the the conman yellow.

Unfortunately - Gemstones are not a renewable resource. However the rarity of a Gemstone is one reason they can be very valuable.

Question is not stated properly. What it seems to be asking is the relationship between rocks and Geology. Rocks are basically what the Earth is made of...you have tiny tiny rocks....great big giant rocks....melted rock. Everything that is not water or air is rock and is therefore a part of the study of the Earth...that we call Geology.

The closest to a stone I could get is the Illinois State Mineral, which is Fluorite.

http://www.miim.com/thebside/tumbler/index.html

This is nice.

Best to look at what is on the market for a plan of how to build

Polymorphic minerals are two or more minerals that have the same chemical composition, but different crystal structures. For example, pyrite is isometric and marcasite is orthorhombic, but both are composed of iron sulfide. Similarly, diamond and graphite are both composed of carbon, but the former is isometric and the latter is hexagonal.

Garnet leaves no color in a streak test .

South Dakota is not known for its diamonds.

Depends on size, clarity, color. There would be a healthy markup if the origin was proven. Compare "palladot", the gem peridot found in pallasite meteorites; cut stones of this material go for far more than terrestrial peridot.

Tufa and calcium carbonate can be found in mammoth caves ,Kentucky.

People can make money from rocks, but they are not as valuable as minerals. Many people tend to confuse the two. A rock is a common stone such as limestone, sandstone, marble, granite, and slate. These materials are more commonly used as building or "facing" materials. Minerals consist of such stones as quartz and its other cryptocrystalline forms such as agates, Carnelian, and Jaspers. These, along with many other types of stones, are all called 'Semi-precious' gems. Then, there are the stones like Rubies, Garnets, Amethysts, Emeralds, and, of course, diamonds. These are considered to be 'precious' gemstones. So, yes, a person could be a construction worker or mason, and make a lot of money by using 'rocks' as building materials, but it's better to be a "Gemologist" and make tons of money from what are known as "semi-precious" and "precious" jewels.

This will depend on the market demand. You can try putting up a posting online or the newspaper for one price and see if anyone is interested.