What are the physical properties of minerals?
What are the physical properties of minerals?
Using Characteristics of Minerals to Identify Them Most minerals can be characterized and classified by their unique physical properties: hardness, luster, color, streak, specific gravity, cleavage, fracture, and tenacity.
What does tenacity mean in chemistry?
The term tenacity describes a mineral’s toughness, or its resistance to breaking or deforming. Minerals that are ionically bonded, such as fluorite and halite, tend to be brittle and shatter into small pieces when struck. By contrast, minerals with metallic bonds, such as native copper, are malleable, or easily
What is the difference between essential and trace minerals?
Essential minerals are sometimes divided up into major minerals (macrominerals) and trace minerals (microminerals). These two groups of minerals are equally important, but trace minerals are needed in smaller amounts than major minerals. The amounts needed in the body are not an indication of their importance.
What optical property is used to identify minerals?
THE ABILITY TO TRANSMIT LIGHT. Another optical property used in the identification of minerals is the ability to transmit light. When no light is transmitted, the mineral is described as opaque. When light, but not an image, is transmitted through a mineral it is said to be translucent.
What is the importance of classification of minerals?
What is the important classification of minerals? Minerals with the same anionic or anionic group in their arrangement have a clear family resemblance. For example, all carbonates are identical to each other. Minerals having the same anion tend to occur together or in the same or similar geological environment.
How are the physical properties of minerals used to diagnose diseases?
Because the physical properties of a mineral are determined by its chemical composition and internal atomic structure, they can be used diagnostically, the way a runny nose and sore throat can be used to diagnose a cold.
What are the types of breakage in minerals?
The breaks can be described as grainy, hackly (jagged), conchoidal (curved), or splintery. How well a mineral resists breakage is known as tenacity. Tenacity is described using these terms: Brittle – Mineral crushes to angular fragments (quartz).
