system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: how does bismuth form those precise beautiful crystals?
gpt
Metals and salts are 'crystalline' which means that their tiny smallest parts like to arrange in very organized ways. Different crystals like to arrange their pieces in different shapes and can only form THAT shape.

Think of bismuth atoms as lego blocks. When bismuth starts to collect near itself, it doesn't like to jumble up, but rather attach all together like lego. BUT! Lego can't just attach any way they like. They can only attach up-down-left or right. And you can't attach two top ends together. Bismuth is the same way.

When you let enough bismuth settle around itself, the atoms drop into these lego spaces until they make nice, long straight lines and sharp corners.

What's even cooler is that other crystals don't work like lego, and they like to connect in triangles or hexagons, which makes different crystal shapes like diamond, garnet and quartz.