Terms and Definitions
The color of a mineral when it is a powder.
What is streak?
___________are mixtures of chemicals, while ___________are mostly composed of just one chemical.
What are rocks and minerals?
A naturally-occurring solid material from which a useful mineral can be extracted.
What is an ore?
The tendency of a mineral to break along flat surfaces.
What is cleavage?
Fill in the blanks:
One of the things that distinguishes rocks from minerals is that _____________are generally "_______________" than most ________________.
You must get the right order for these three words.
What are minerals, shinier, and rocks.
Look at the Mohs Hardness Scale on page 72.
You are holding a sample of potassium feldspar in your hand. You are going to test its hardness.
a. Can it scratch a streak plate?
b. Can it scratch a glass plate?
c. Can an iron nail scratch it?
Are the answers No, Yes, and No? Yes, these are the answers to the three questions.
Identify each of the following as silicate or non-silicate minerals:
a.CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8
b. Si
c. CaTiSiO5
d. Ca10Mg2Al4(SiO4)5(SiO7)2(OH)4
What are (a.) non-silicate, (b.) non-silicate, (c.) silicate, and (d.) silicate?
Extremely hot liquid or semi-liquid rock located beneath the surface of the earth.
What is magma?
Fill in the blanks:
____________________, __________________, ___________________ and __________________are all examples of the optical properties of minerals.
You must get all four words to get this one correct.
What are color, streak, luster, and transparency?
The bubbling of a mineral when it is exposed to acid.
What is effervescence?
Fill in the blanks:
Luster is the way a mineral ________________ when _______________ hits it.
The two broad categories of luster are ________________________________ and ___________________________________.
Where do the words shines, light, metallic luster and non-metallic luster fit into the blanks?
A ruby that is 0.75 grams is _______carats.
What is 3.75 carats?
A mineral that is weakly attracted to a magnet and cannot become a magnet when exposed to one.
What is a paramagnetic mineral?
You are looking at four different color varieties of the mineral Beryl. What is each of their chemical formulas?
Are they each Be3Al2Si6O18? Yes, each of them has this same chemical formula. It is the impurities in them that give them their variety of color.