The way a mineral breaks is a better clue to its identity than are its color and luster.
Luster refers to the way light interacts with the surface of a mineral. Cleavage is the way a mineral breaks along planes of weakness. Hardness is the resistance of a mineral to scratching. Color is the visual appearance of a mineral, which can vary widely within the same mineral species.
The five properties of a mineral include color, streak, luster, hardness, and cleavage or fracture. Color is the visual appearance of the mineral, streak is the color of the mineral's powder, luster describes how the mineral reflects light, hardness measures the mineral's resistance to scratching, and cleavage or fracture describes how the mineral breaks.
luster
Four common properties of minerals are hardness, luster, cleavage or fracture, and color. Hardness refers to the mineral's resistance to scratching, while luster describes how light reflects off the surface. Cleavage refers to how a mineral breaks along planes of weakness, and fracture describes irregular breaks. Color can vary among minerals but is not always a reliable indicator of mineral identification.
It is the shine of the mineral.
It is the shine of the mineral.
The term for the way a mineral reflects light is known as its "luster." Luster describes how light interacts with the surface of a mineral, with terms such as metallic, vitreous, pearly, or dull used to categorize the type of luster a mineral possesses.
luster
The mineral that has a pearly luster and a conchoidal fracture is talc. Talc is a soft mineral with a characteristic pearly luster due to its perfect cleavage planes and breaks with a unique conchoidal fracture pattern.
If a mineral has a shiny luster, is it matallicIf a mineral has no shiny luster, is it nonmetallic?
Luster is the way a mineral reflects light.