Wondrous Words Wednesday-Nov. 2

Bermudaonion asks you to share new words that you have learned during your reading adventures in the last week. Feel free to join in the fun!

Here are a couple of new words that I learned while reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls:

Gypsum: a colourless or white mineral sometimes tinted by impurities, found in beds as an evaporite. It is used in the manufacture of plaster of Paris, cement, paint, school chalk, glass, and fertilizer.

Here is how gypsum was used on page 19:
Dad would get a job as an electrician or engineer in a gypsum or copper mine.

Centrifugal: moving or directed outward from the center.

Here is how centrifugal was used on page 74:
They'd stick their heads into her classroom and see the students playing tag and throwing erasers while Mom was up front, spinning like a top and letting pieces of chalk fly from her hands to demonstrate centrifugal force.

Well that is it for my new words this week...did you come across anything new?  I can't believe I've never heard of gypsum before!  First time for everything I guess!