Question

Which of the following properties is generally the least useful in identifying minerals?

Answer 1

First, you should know that the four properties given are used in the identification of minerals. Hardness is the level of difficulty with which the smooth surface of a mineral sample may be scratched. Cleavage is how the crystal splits along a plane. Color is the result of the reflection of the light by the atoms and Streak is the color displayed by the mineral when it is crushed to a fine powder, while impurity contents affect the color, they do not affect the streak. So, streak is a better technique to identify minerals than colors. And the other two, hardness and cleavage are well known as being very useful. So, the least useful is color. Answer: option D.) color.

Answer 2

Identification of minerals that are least recommended is color identification (answer D)

color is the least useful in identifying minerals because minerals can have various colors and can be subjective depending on the observer

Further explanation

In mineral, identification can be done visually or using special equipment

There are several physical properties or chemical properties that are used to determine certain minerals

• 1. Hardness of material

Material hardness is usually expressed on the Mohs scale where the range of values is on a scale of 1-10

Value 1 is the softest and 10 is the hardest

The hardness of the material itself is a mineral resistance to scratches

Mineral hardness can also be compared to the hardness of other minerals

Examples of steel nails that have a scale of 5 Mohs

• 2. Streak

Streak is a mineral color in the form of powder, which is done by scraping minerals in rough fields so that powder is formed. The resulting color can be either the original color or not

• 3. Cleavage

It is a characteristic of mineral splitting because of external treatment such as beating so that the mineral can split according to the lines

If there is no visible line, the mineral will break

Like calcite which has 3 fields/lines

• 4. Colour

Minerals can have several colors. The color that we see is a reflection of light that affects minerals

Color identification can be subjective depending on the observer

For example, iron oxide can have a yellow to reddish-brown color

So identification of minerals that are least recommended is color identification (answer D)

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Keywords: mineral, identification, Streak, Hardness, color, cleavage