Cubic Cells
The unit cell of a cubic crystal is based on a cube. The loaction of the atoms in the cube determines whether one is looking at a simple cubic cell (scc), face-centered cubic cell (fcc), or body-centered cubic cell (bcc)
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A simple cubic cell is a cubic unit cell that has particles on all of the veticies of the unit cell and no where else. |
In a body-centered cubic cell, not only are all of the verticies of the cube occupied, but there is also one particle at the very center of the unit cell. |
The face-centered cubic cell has particles on each face of the cube as well as at each vertex of the cube. |
To rotate the unit cell, grab the model with your mouse (click and hold)
and drag your mouse.
To enlarge or reduce the cell hold the shift key while click-dragging your
mouse up and down.
These unit cells are not real cells. These unit cells were arbitrarily created simply to show the differences between different cubic cells.