![]() Begin by locating a smooth, unscratched surface for testing. ![]() ![]() It is surprising that such a simple test has been in use for over two centuries. Millions of students have used the Mohs Hardness Test to identify minerals. The Mohs Hardness Scale has been used by geologists and geology students for over 200 years. See the accompanying table of the Mohs Hardness Scale minerals. With the exception of diamond, the minerals are all relatively common, easy to obtain, and inexpensive. He selected ten minerals of distinctly different hardness that ranged from a very soft mineral (talc) to a very hard mineral (diamond). Discovering a Hardness Scaleįriedrich Mohs, a German mineralogist, discovered the hardness scale in 1812. The Mohs hardness of a mineral is important information for determining the identity of your specimen. Similarly, if your specimen cannot be scratched by reference mineral #5, then its hardness is greater than or equal to a Mohs hardness of 5.īy doing successive tests with different reference specimens, you can closely estimate the Mohs hardness of your mineral specimen. If you have a mineral specimen of unknown hardness, and reference mineral #5 can scratch it, then the hardness of your specimen is less than or equal to a Mohs hardness of 5. To avoid injury, drag the known specimen away from your body and parallel to the fingers that are holding the unknown specimen. Press the reference specimen firmly against the unknown, and deliberately drag it across the flat surface while pressing firmly. Then place a point of the reference specimen against a flat, unmarked surface of the unknown specimen. Mohs hardness test: When conducting the test, place the unknown specimen on a table top and firmly hold it in place with one hand.
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