Look at some crystals of table salt under a microscope or a magnifying glass and observe their generally cubic shapes. There’s no machine at the salt factory specifically designed to give salt crystals these cubic shapes, as opposed to round or triangular ones. The cubic shape occurs naturally and is a reflection of how the atoms of salt are organized—cubically. Smash a few of these salt cubes and then look at them again carefully. What you’ll see are smaller salt cubes! Use the cleavage properties of crystals to explain these results.