Could someone please help me explain the 4 characteristics of a mineral?
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cut color clarity karat
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http://www.stonecareuk.net/propertiesofstone.html\n\nHope this site is of help to you
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1. it forms in nature\n2. it is a solid\n3. it has a definite chemical makeup\n4. it has a crystal structure
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It is a basic molecular building block of silicate minerals. It consists of 4 oxygen atoms arranged in a tetrahedron shape around a silicon atom. \nHere's a diagram to see the shape:\nhttp://www.geo.wvu.edu/~wilson/geol1/lec15/lec153.htm\n\nThe bonds in a silicate tetrahedron: oxygen is -2, silicon is +4 and the net charge is -4\n\nThere are six ways to bond molecules of silicate tetrahedrons:\n1. Individual tretrahedrons connected by cations\n2. Chain structure joined by cations\n3. Double chains joined by cations\n4. Sheet structure  joined by cations\n5. Framework structure joined by covalent bonds\n6. Ring structure\n\nOne combination of the above is worth noting, being feldspar which has aluminum ions substituting for some of the silicon and there are ionic bonds with the aluminate tetrahedrons and some covalent bonds between the silicate tetrahedrons. \n\nThe silicates form an incredibly large group of minerals. You can go here to see most of them: http://www.webmineral.com/strunz/VIII.shtml\n\n\nThis question is leading up to the classes or groups of minerals. There are a number of classes built around having common molecular building blocks. \n\nTwo of the classification systems are Dana Classification and Strunz Classification. You can see these here:\nhttp://www.webmineral.com/strunz.shtml\nhttp://www.webmineral.com/danaclass.shtml\n\n\nPlease go back and look at my answer for one of your questions on quartz/calcite. I added an answer to the question you asked on your first post, which I just noticed. How are we doing? Is this helping?
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A. Pyrite and magnetite are both from the same crystal system. That means they form crystals in a similar shape or pattern. They are both from the isometric system. They will both be blocky crystals but may not be exactly the same. Perfect pyrite crystals are cube shaped or diploidal (see:http://webmineral.com/data/Pyrite.shtml), and magnetite is an octahedron (see: http://webmineral.com/data/Magnetite.shtml).\n\nHardness of magnetite is 5 1/2-6 on Mohs scale and pyrite is 6- 6 1/2.  \n\nBoth have conchoidal fracture. (Quartz has conchoidal fracture in case you need to picture this)\n\nBoth have a similar density. Pyrite has a density of 4.8-5 g/cc and magnetite has a density of 4.95 gm/cc.\n\nBoth have a metallic luster. \n\nB. The best way to distinguish between them is to use a streak test. Magnetite will be grayish-black and pyrite will be greenish-black.\n\nThe other major difference is that magnetite will be naturally magnetic, and pyrite will not be. \n\n\nThe lesson here is to learn think of your different properties as sort of a tool kit. Decide which properties are useful and which ones will not be useful for the particular samples you are testing. Be sure to be familiar with all of the properties you can use. A list would be:\na. cleavage\nb. color (one of the least reliable)\nc. density\nd. luster\ne. fracture\nf. crystal habit (can be confusing because some minerals have several possible)\ng. hardness (know the hardness of common tests like a penny, a knife, a quartz crystal, glass, etc.)\nh. streak\ni. magnetism\nj. taste (best test for Halite or sylvite)\nk. There are lots more that involve using thin sections in a microscope, and X-ray diffractometer, etc.
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You should probably need your periodic table.\nGenerally chemical formulas are for ionic compounds, hence you need to know the charges of the ions formed.\nAll Group I metals form ions of +1 charge, Group II metals forms +2 charged ions, Group III (like Al) forms +3 charge, Group IV prefers to share, seldom will they form ions, hence we shall keep them out of the picture.\nGroup V non-metals form -3 charge, Group VI -2 and Group VII -1. Group O elements have full outermost shell, hence they seldom participate in bonding.\nSo if you are looking at magnesium oxide, the ionic compound is formed between magnesium ion (Group II, hence Mg2+) and the oxide ion (from oxygen, Group VI, hence O2-).\nYou will realise that to balance the charges, you need exactly 1 Mg2+ and 1 O2-. Hence the chemical formula of magnesium oxide is MgO.\nAnother example, for sodium chloride. Sodium ion (Na+) and chloride ion (Cl-). Hence 1 of each is needed to balance the charges and the formula is NaCl.\nAnother example, lead (IV) oxide. Lead is a transition metal and transition metals form ions of variable valencies. Lead (IV) means the charge of the lead ion here is Pb4+. Thus you need 1 Pb4+ and 2 O2- (so that the charges are cancelled) for lead (IV) oxide, PbO2.\nYou have also polyatomic ions, like hydroxide (OH-), sulphate [(SO4)2-], nitrate [(NO3)-] and carbonate [(CO3)2-]. Similarly, ionic compounds formed will require the balance of charges.\nExample, with sodium sulphate.\nYou have Na+ and sulphate [(SO4)2-].\nYou will need 2 sodium ions to balance the -2 charge of the sulphate ion. Hence the chemical formula is Na2SO4.\nHope this helps. :)
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The chemical composition of diferent minerals is what makes them different colors.  This is why jade is green, sapphires (my birthstone) are blue, rubies are red, etc.   This is also whay there are color variations within different types of the same mineral (yellow diamonds, colorless diamonds, etc.)
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Mohs' hardness scale is somewhat arbitrary.  Moh tried to find commonly available minerals that were about equally spaced in hardness.  Talc was arbitrarily assigned "1."\n\nAs one example of the inconsistency, diamond (Moh's 10) is about 10 times harder than corundum (Moh's 9).\n\nThere should be some minerals sites out there that allow you to list minerals in order of Moh's hardness.  There may also be some with Vicker's hardness for comparison.\n\nThe main advantage of Moh's hardness scale is its practicality for field use.\n\nA lot of the sheet silicates are very soft.  In the soft ones, the only forces holding the sheets together are van der Waal's forces, which are quite weak.\n\nClays are very soft.  The crystals are very small and only van der Waals forces act between them.  (They are also sheet silicates, but the sheets are held tightly together by cations.)
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Mineral group- Zippeite|Hardness-5.5| streak-grayish, black| Cleavage [100]- good,[010]- good [001]- good| Fracture- brittle, generally displayed by glasses and most non-metallic minerals| Magnetism- Magnetic after heating| Chemical formula- CoAsS| Name Origin- From the German, Kobold, "underground spirit" or "goblin," in allusion to the refusal of cobaltiferous ores to smelt properly, hence "bewitched."
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The best answer is C. Minerals are inorganic, have a definite homogeneous chemical structure, are solid and have a crystalline structure formed by geologic processes.
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Try this link\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium\n\nPhysical properties \nPhase solid \nDensity (near r.t.) 1.55 g/cm³ \nLiquid density at m.p. 1.378 g/cm³ \nMelting point 1115 K\n(842 °C, 1548 °F) \nBoiling point 1757 K\n(1484 °C, 2703 °F) \nHeat of fusion 8.54 kJ/mol \nHeat of vaporization 154.7 kJ/mol \nHeat capacity (25 °C) 25.929 J/(mol·K) \n\nAtomic properties \nCrystal structure cubic face centered \nOxidation states 2\n(strongly basic oxide) \nElectronegativity 1.00 (Pauling scale) \nIonization energies\n(more) 1st: 589.8 kJ/mol \n2nd: 1145.4 kJ/mol \n3rd: 4912.4 kJ/mol \nAtomic radius 180 pm \nAtomic radius (calc.) 194 pm \nCovalent radius 174 pm \n\n\nMagnetic ordering paramagnetic \nElectrical resistivity (20 °C) 33.6 nΩ·m \nThermal conductivity (300 K) 201 W/(m·K) \nThermal expansion (25 °C) 22.3 µm/(m·K) \nSpeed of sound (thin rod) (20 °C) 3810 m/s \nYoung's modulus 20 GPa \nShear modulus 7.4 GPa \nBulk modulus 17 GPa \nPoisson ratio 0.31 \nMohs hardness 1.75 \nBrinell hardness 167 MPa \nCAS registry number 7440-70-2 \n\n\nHistory\nCalcium (Latin calx, meaning "lime") was known of as early as the first century when the Ancient Romans prepared lime as calcium oxide. It was not actually isolated until 1808 in England when Sir Humphrey Davy electrolyzed a mixture of lime and mercuric oxide. Davy was trying to isolate calcium and when he heard that Berzelius and Pontin prepared calcium amalgam by electrolyzing lime in mercury, he tried it himself. He worked with electrolysis throughout his life and also discovered/isolated magnesium, strontium and barium.
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The two are very different minerals. \n\nGarnet describes a group of minerals, of the general formula of\nA3B2 (SiO4) 3  where A = Ca, Fe, etc, and B=Al, Cr, etc. Garnet comes in a variety of colors including red, black, brown, green, orange, pink, and colorless.  They are sometimes used as gemstones, but probably are more popular as a coating in high quality sandpaper and other abrasives. \n\nHere are some photos of different garnet minerals:\nhttp://www.galleries.com/minerals/silicate/garnets.htm\nTo see more data on the mineral properties go here:\nhttp://www.mindat.org/min-1651.html\n\nAquamarine is a blue gemstone variety of a mineral known as beryl. Beryl is Be3Al2Si6O18. Aquamarine and other varieties of beryl are much more popular as gemstones than garnet. Beryl also comes in green, blue, yellow, white, pink and other colors. Beryl is slightly harder than garnet with a rating 7.5 to 8 compared to 6.5 to 7.5 on Moh's scale of hardness. \n\nHere are pictures of beryls including aquamarine:\nhttp://www.galleries.com/minerals/silicate/beryl/beryl.htm\n\n\nHOOK 'EM HORNS!!!!
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becos the paper u r burning may contain\nCopper sulfate\nBorax (Sodium borate)\nEach metal has a characteristic flame color which has been found to be useful in identifying minerals.
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Phsical properties are things you can see in physical education class, size, shape, color, taste\n\nsmall crystals\nwhite, brown\nhard as in solid at room temp\nsweet
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Crystal Silimanite\n \nMolecular Weight (g/mol.) 162.04558 \nApparent Density (g/cm3) 3.24 \nBulk Density (g/cm3) 3.24 \nMelting Point (°F) 3290 \nBoiling Point (°C)   \nSurface Area (m2/g)   \nThermal Conductivity (cal/s-cm-°C)   \nMohs Hardness @20°C 6 - 7 \nSpecific Gravity (g/cc) 3.2 \nParticle Shape   \nScreen Analysis   \nCrystallography orthorhombic \n\n\n\nFrom what i am reading they are the same
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The question is not clear.  Are you asking what a crystal is?  Are you asking what the different crystal structures are?  Are you asking for the characteristics of crystals in general?
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1. Color. This can vary based on the amount or type of impurities in the mineral, or because of different ratios of certain elements such as (Mg,Fe)[X]Si[8]O[22](OH)[2] in amphiboles - the X and the ratio of Mg to Fe can vary.\n\n2. Index of Refraction. This is the change in angle of light passing through the mineral, and can be changed by anion content just like the color.\n\n3. Crystal shape. This can actually be completely different in an alteration mineral than the pure crystallized form. i.e. mineral formed from alteration of pyroxene can retain the crystal (hexagonal) form which may be completely different than the shape it would have if it crystallized out of solution or in a magma chamber.