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Explain How Color May Be Used To Identify Minerals At Different Levels Of Hardness

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Homework #2
The physical properties are color, shape, volume, cleavage and hardness.
Defining a mineral by color is not the most sophisticated method, due to many minerals hold the same color. Also, different imperfections can show different colors within the mineral. Only using color can be difficult to identify a mineral, but when using a combination of shape and hardness one has the ability to narrow down choices. If a mineral reflects light from a surface it is said to have luster, however it does not reflect light such as silver or copper does it would be called glassy, pearly and dull.
Minerals are said to have a different level of hardness, this means that some of the minerals are softer compared to others. Certain Minerals have the ability to be scratched or left marks in as with others one cannot mark in the surface …show more content…

The shape of a crystal will vary due to the amount of space that is available; however the angle that it faces will always be the same, which means that the internal atomic structure will be similar in each, which could be due to the factor of twinning. One can also tell the difference when a mineral breaks, does it break into a smooth plane in a certain direction can help tell the difference in the mineral.
Definition of a rock and mineral
A mineral is a naturally substance that happens, in this process an inorganic material creates a solid crystal like material that has a specific chemical composition. All the matters that make up a mineral are natural and made up from the earth and do not have living matter in them. The structure makes it three dimensional, which means that it has a particular shape that repeats itself. Now compared to a rock, which is also an inorganic material, however it has not certain atomic structure compared to minerals. Rocks are made up of several different minerals, which have been “stuck” together in a geological process that formed

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