You usually start with a big lump of mud. That lump of mud is filled with silicon. The same way silicon is used to make glass, it is used to make pottery. Silicon is a big part of what makes computers work. Inside of your computer, or maybe even your television set, there are little black boxes called chips.
Scientists flatten silicon crystals into little circles called wafers.
These wafers are then stamped with the image of a computer chip. In the summer, when you go to the beach, look across all the sand. That sand is made up of silicon. Imagine how much sand is on all of the beaches of the world. Almost all of it is silicon.