A thought experiment kept in a box, alive or dead, behind quantum locks. Do not open the lid, curb your curiousity, for you know what they say, curiousity killed me.

I wait with cheese and patient grin, for whiskered guests to wander in. A tiny step, a fatal tap, and silence follows after SNAP.

Rock. Crystal. Fine. Sea. All are me. A necessity.

A sound you might make if a mouse you do spy; if you can’t solve this liddle, your IQ, I’m afraid, is not very high.

I'm a crude word for a BM, often associated with a single large piece, and sorry for any unwanted visuals. I'm also a three letter mathematical term, sometimes annoying, defining an exponent in multiplication. I'm a piece of tree, so please solve the word; an easy three letter term.