How is the Mohs scale of mineral hardness used?

Answer 1

The Mohs scale is used to aid in quick field identification of minerals, along with other techniques.

Mohs based the scale on ten minerals that are all readily available. As the hardest known naturally occurring substance, diamond is at the top of the scale. The hardness of a material is measured against the scale by finding the hardest material that the given material can scratch, and/or the softest material that can scratch the given material. For example, if some material is scratched by apatite but not by fluorite, its hardness on the Mohs scale would fall between 4 and 5.

Hardness Mineral

1 Talc (Mg3Si4O10(OH)2)

2 Gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O)

3 Calcite (CaCO3)

4 Fluorite (CaF2)

5 Apatite (Ca5(PO4)3(OH-,Cl-,F-)

6 Orthoclase (KAlSi3O8)

7 Quartz (SiO2)

8 Topaz (Al2SiO4(OH-,F-)2)

9 Corundum (Al2O3)

10 Diamond (C)

Answer 2

The hardness of a mineral is often used by geologists to help determine the identity of a sample. The hardness of unknown mineral samples against a series of known samples. One is the softest mineral and ten is the hardest.

Answer 3

Although you can use common materials like steel nails, knives, copper pennies, and fingernails to get an idea of a mineral's relative hardness on the Mohs scale, kits are made with mineral tips that represent each number from 1-10. You would attempt to scratch an unidentified mineral's crystal face with a successively higher numbered tip until the crystal face was scratched. The number corresponding with that tip would be the mineral's hardness on the Mohs scale (or close to that number). A list of minerals with that number will help in identifying the mineral in question.

Answer 4

the softest a mineral can be is a 2 and the hardest it can be is a 9, it is a scale of 2-9

Another Answer

The Mohs Scale of hardness ranges from 1 to 10. You can read more about it, below. "The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is based on the ability of one natural sample of matter to scratch another"

Answer 5

We can take a hardness box where the hardness of minerals is known. Scratch it in order and if the mineral gets scratched then its hardness is less than that of the reference mineral and vice-versa.

Answer 6

The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is used to measure the hardness of minerals by comparing their scratch resistance. It ranks minerals on a scale from 1 (softest) to 10 (hardest). By testing a mineral against the known hardness of other minerals, geologists can determine the relative hardness of an unknown specimen.

Answer 7

the bigger the number for that particular mineral, the harder it is. it ranges from 1-10, diamond being 10, the hardest.

Answer 8

the mohs scale is a chart used to compare the thickness or hardness which a diamond would always be the strongest one

Answer 9

The scratching mechanism of Moh's scale of hardness.