What is the difference between hardness and cleavage?

What is the difference between hardness and cleavage?

Hardness is the ability of a mineral to resist scratching, and the Mohs Scale provides a relative ranking of hardness for ten different minerals. Cleavage is the tendency of a mineral to break along planes and form flat sheets of material.

How are cleavage and fracture of minerals similar?

Cleavage is the property of a mineral that allows it to break smoothly along specific internal planes (called cleavage planes) when the mineral is struck sharply with a hammer. Fracture is the property of a mineral breaking in a more or less random pattern with no smooth planar surfaces.

How are the mineral properties of cleavage and fracture similar and different?

Cleavage and fracture differ in that cleavage is the break of a crystal face where a new face (resulting in a smooth plane) is formed, whereas fracture is the “chipping” shape of a mineral. All minerals exhibit a fracture, even those that exhibit cleavage.

Which property refers to the resistance of minerals to scratching?

Hardness. The ability to resist being scratched—or hardness—is one of the most useful properties for identifying minerals. Hardness is determined by the ability of one mineral to scratch another.

What is the difference between hardness and relative hardness?

Hardness is the resistance of a mineral to scratching, and it is one of the more useful diagnostic properties. Relative hardness is easy to determine. All you have to do is rub one substance against the other. The substance that is not scratched is harder.

How is the hardness of a mineral determined?

The ability to resist being scratched—or hardness—is one of the most useful properties for identifying minerals. Hardness is determined by the ability of one mineral to scratch another. Federick Mohs, a German mineralogist, produced a hardness scale (table 5) using a set of ten standard minerals. The scale arranges the minerals in order

What is the difference between tenacity and hardness?

Tenacity is the resistance of a mineral to breaking, and tenacity can be characterized as brittle, malleable, sectile and elastic. Hardness is the ability of a mineral to resist scratching, and the Mohs Scale provides a relative ranking of hardness for ten different minerals.

What are the physical properties of minerals?

Using Characteristics of Minerals to Identify Them Most minerals can be characterized and classified by their unique physical properties: hardness, luster, color, streak, specific gravity, cleavage, fracture, and tenacity.