ABSTRACT
The word ceramic was initially derived from the Greek word keramos, which means roughly "burnt stuff." The first earthenware pottery and most ceramics that we use today are fabricated starting with a powder. Glass typically starts out with powdered or crushed raw materials, but instead of sintering the powders to form a solid, the raw materials are heated to a high enough temperature that they melt to form a homogeneous liquid. The atomic arrangement of glass is stable at high temperature, but not at room temperature. Most single crystals are produced at high temperature from ceramic powders and clearly fit into the existing definitions as ceramics. Single crystals of natural minerals such as quartz, ruby, and diamond are occasionally found in nature. Most single crystals are produced at high temperature from ceramic powders and clearly fit into the existing definitions as ceramics.
