Does this test  the _____ of the mineral?
609399
Streak, I would say, based on the following:\n\nPhysical properties commonly used are :\n\nCrystal structure and habit: A mineral may show good crystal habit or form, or it may be massive, granular or compact with only microscopically visible crystals. \nHardness: the physical hardness of a mineral is usually measured according to the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. \nLuster indicates the way a mineral's surface interacts with light and can range from dull to glassy (vitreous).\nStreak refers to the color of the powder a mineral leaves after rubbing it on an unglazed porcelain streak plate.\nCleavage describes the way a mineral may come apart or cleave in different ways. In thin section, cleavage is visible as thin parallel lines across a mineral.
815831
There are 5 steps to take in mineral idenfication, they are: \n\nStep 1 \nDetermine the luster (metallic or nonmetallic) of your mineral. \n\nStep2 \nDetermine the hardness of your mineral. Using a glass plate, see if the mineral scratches it. Be careful, make sure the glass is on a table, do not hold in your hand. Firmly grasp your mineral and draw it over the glass. If the mineral powders, then use your fingernail to feel if the glass is scratched. \n\nStep3 \nDetermine whether your mineral is light-colored or dark-colored (nonmetallics only). \n\nStep4 \nDetermine whether your sample has cleavage. \n\nStep5 \nYour choices have been narrowed down, using the chart see which physical properties match up with your mineral.
389575
GOLD-PLATINUM-PALLADIUM TEST\nBy Delos Toole\n\nSelect ore samples suspected to contain Gold-Platinum-Palladium and use concentrates equal to the size of one navy bean or pea. Place the concentrates in a clean test tube and add 1cc Nitric Acid and 3cc Hydrochloric Acid, (this a solution named Aqua Regia which is used regularly when testing.) Boil this over a lamp flame for about 5 to 8 minutes. Should this Aqua Regia solution contain Gold-Platinum-Palladium then the following tests will react with various colors, (good idea to practice on known samples of Gold-Platinum-Palladium for color and reaction identification and become familiar to them.)\n\nTest for Gold (Au).\n\nPrepare a solution for Stannous Chloride for each 8 hour period as this solution does not hold up under extended time periods. Dissolving Metallic Tin (Sn) in Hydrochloric Acid (HC1), where the resulted solution will be called Stannous Chloride (SnC1). Place about 2cc of HC1 in a clean test tube and add 1 or 2 small bit pieces of Metallic Tin to the test tube and bring this to a slight boil. You now have Stannous Chloride (SnC1).\n\nNow begin the gold test by making a spot test with freshly made Stannous Chloride by placing a piece of filter paper onto a clean piece of glass and place one drop of Aqua Regia solution in the center of the filter paper, and then add to this mixture one drop of freshly made Stannous Chloride solution. If gold is present there will show up on the filter paper a purple or rose colored spot when the filter paper has dried; the darker the color the more gold will be present; for low grade ore the spot color will appear plainer. Should the filter paper dry out completely, then add 1 more drop of Stannous Chloride solution to the filter paper to bring out the color.\n\nBegin the test for Platinum (Pt) by placing 20 drops of Aqua Regia solution onto a clean porcelain evaporating dish and boil this over a lamp flame until it is dry, then allow this to remain over the lamp flame for about an extended one second.\n\nPlace the dish where it can cool for a few minutes so as not to break the dish. After cooling, place 4cc of distilled water, (or water free from Chlorine), and reheat just to the boiling point. Filter this solution onto another clean porcelain evaporating dish. Add to this dish, Potassium Iodide equal to one grain of rice. Warm this solution slightly over the lamp flame and observe the color that appears. The results for this test will show if Platinum (Pt) is present as the solution will begin to turn to a light or dark rose color within a few minutes time.\n\nThe more Platinum present in the solution, (ore sample), the quicker and darker the color will appear.\n\nSulphides and other impurities, most likely will give a red color to the solution and will be mistaken for the rose color, if so, then boil off about one-half of the solution to quicken the evaporation process. Then let the porcelain dish set until completely dry, then add a few drops of clean plain water, (no chlorine water). The result will then be a bright rose color, and should there be Sulphides or other impurities in the solution they will appear as colorless. If this solution should appear red, then add a few cc’s of plain water to dilute the dark rose color to a lighter rose color, then you have Platinum (Pt).\n\nTesting for Palladium(Pd).\n\nIn the test for Platinum (Pt), upon adding Potassium Iodide (KI) and warming the procedure, if Palladium (Pd) is present in the sample ore, the solution will turn a dark color or black, which depends upon the amount of Palladium (Pd) present. The more Palladium (Pd) present, the darker the color will be, and also there will be a black precipitate in the bottom of the porcelain dish, which when adding an excess of Potassium Iodide (KI) will dissolve giving a wine-red color appearance.
746120
Can you be more specific?  Testing for what?
279399
yes, and some test miss it unless testing for it specifically....
488134
It measures mineral hardness.
1028869
For some values of difficult to test.\n\nTypically, inorganic compounds are ionic in nature, so you're more likely to get chlori*d*e than chlorine (you do appreciate the difference, right?) so you can do things like addition of silver nitrate to get a ppt.\n\nHowever, you can also run mass specs and things - chlorine has a typical splitting pattern here based on isotopic ratios and so in this instance it's probably just as easy to detect it in organic (if not more so) than in inorganic compounds
65188
I don't know that anyone has ever tested that. Perhaps you should set up an experiment and find out.....
735927
Funny you should ask,,I just bought one ,with the recomendation of a friend and am about  to take a test in about an hour or so..ill probablly get the resultsmon..and will try to let you know..
1152486
Basic tools for identification would include:\n\nStreak Plate - for streak test\nGlass Plate/ Nail/ Penny/ Fingernail - for hardness test\nDiluted Hydrochloric acid - fizz test for identifying CaCO3\nMagnets - for identifying magnetic properties\n10x Loop - for magnifiying & looking up close\n\nMore complicated stuff used by mineralogists include:\n\nX-ray Diffraction\nScanning Electron Microscopes (SEM)\nTransmission Electron Microscopes (TEM)\n\nMineralogists cut minerals into thin section to view them through these microscopes. They are looking at the crystalline structure of the mineral.\n\nI know it's not much but it should give you a start. The link below gives more information on the thin sectioning of minerals & the microscopes used in mineralogy.\n\nGood luck with the assignment.
938158
Get a test and prove it.
934689
its a test.. will you go for it
1105564
Don't know try it and tell us.  \n\nWould you sniff this?\n\nhttp://plaza.ufl.edu/kbeaz/severe_calculus.jpg
1099415
I don't know how you are precipitating out the gold, but I don't think a colorimetric test for gold in solution is possible.  It is non-reactive and does not ionize.  Given that gold has filled upper electron orbitals, you might be able to run a UV-VIS spectrum and get some UV absorption for solvated gold versus clean aqua regia.  The UV apsorption is probably going to be in the lower UV wavlengths, and it might not be possible to differentiate between trace levels of gold and trace levels of transition metal impurities.\n\nIf you are precipitating the gold by an equilibrium process, just load up on your precipitation compound to push the equilibrium as far as possible to one side.  Another possibility is to electrolytically remove any trace gold from the aqua regia.  Sorry I don't have any better suggestions.
682891
Some minerals may also be fluorescent under ultraviolet light, that is they absorb UV light and emit in the visible. Other optical properties such as index of refraction and pleochroism (differential light absorption) require an optical microscope to measure.  Certain minerals that display fluorescent properties also display a multicolored effect when having ample illumination with ultraviolet light.
131274
There are many reasons why a mineral might have a different streak color than its outward color. First, there are translucent minerals that are colored by trace elements. These minerals require a large amount of travel time for light to pick up the coloring effects of these trace elements. As a result, small crystals are typically paler than large crystals and extrapolating down to a speck of powder will remove all coloring effects of a trace element and result in a white streak. A translucent mineral that has variable colors will almost certainly have a white streak. \n\nSecondly, a mineral's structure and/or coatings can affect the outward color of a mineral and the streak in many ways is the true color of the mineral. Pyrite (known as "Fool's Gold") is always brassy yellow when found in crystals, even broken crystals, of any size; but when powdered, produces a black streak. It is the structure and chemistry of pyrite that produces the brassy yellow color, but only when enough structure is there. Gold's streak by the way is yellow! One note of caution, a streak plate is only about 6.5 in hardness and a mineral harder than 6.5 will not leave a streak on a streak plate but might scratch the plate leaving a white powder of porcelain, not the mineral! Fortunately most minerals harder than 6.5 have a white streak anyways.
890026
it depends on the test results