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Unit 2 Compare And Contrast Quantitative And Qualitative Research

Decent Essays

Questions 1-3, 5, 6a,d-e: 1) Calcite and halite share many similarities such as being white to transparent, having three cleavage points, and also has roughly the same hardness (calcite has a hardness of three whereas halite has a hardness of 2.5). However, there are also some ways to differentiate between the two. One way to do this, although it is not highly recommended to do this without proper identification, is to taste it. Halite has a salty taste since it is salt. Another way to know what mineral is calcite and which mineral is halite is by looking at their cleavage points. Calcite has rhombohedral cleavage planes (75°) while Halite has a cubic cleavage point (90°). 2) A mineral that was challenging to identify was potassium feldspar. …show more content…

This describes graphite, but doesn’t speak of any quantities or statistics. To make this observation more quantitative, I could relate this information to the hardness scale. The hardness scale states that a fingernail has a hardness of 2.5. From this, I can conclude that graphite has a hardness less than 2.5 since harder objects scratch softer objects. 5) An observation is something that you can look at and record. Observations can be qualitative and quantitative data. Inferences, however, are conclusion that can be made using observations and your prior knowledge. For example, a person might note that iodine becomes purple when put on a potato chip. From this, we can infer that the potato chip has starch in it. 6) a) Graphite (pure carbon) is a mineral. d) Synthetic diamond is not a mineral. In order for an object to be a mineral, it must be naturally occurring, inorganic, solid, have orderly crystalline structures, and definite chemical compositions. Synthetic diamond isn’t classified by a mineral because it is human

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