Krampf
Experiment of the Week - #159 - Is That a Diamond?
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It is amazing how many things people commonly think of as scientific
fact which really are false. For example, vultures do not circle over a
dying animal. Raindrops are round, not teardrop shaped. One of my
favorite misconceptions is the idea that you can identify a diamond
because it will cut glass. For this experiment you will need:
* a glass jar or bottle
* a variety of rock and mineral specimens
Be sure to use a disposable glass jar, because we will be scratching
the glass. Once it is scratched up, you can put it in the recycling
bin. Hold the glass firmly in one hand and the rock you want to test in
the other. Examine the rock to find an edge with a fairly sharp point.
You will use this point to try scratching the glass. Don't press too
hard. You don't want to break the glass. Instead, pretend that the rock
is a pencil, and press about as hard as you would to write on a piece
of paper. If the rock has a hardness of 5.5 or more, it will leave a
scratch on the glass. Be sure to rub your finger over the scratch. If
it rubs off, it's not a scratch. Sometimes a soft mineral will rub off
on the glass and the streak will look like a scratch.
Once you find a rock which will scratch the glass, you have a diamond,
right? No, unfortunately not. The hardness of minerals is measured
using the Moh's hardness scale. This scale ranges from 1 to 10, from
the softest mineral to the hardest.
Moh's Hardness Scale
1 - Talc
2 - Gypsum
3 - Calcite
4 - Fluorite
5 - Apatite
6 - Orthoclase
7 - Quartz
8 - Topaz
9 - Corundum
10 - Diamond
On this scale, glass is 5.5. That means that any mineral that is harder
than 5 1/2 will scratch glass. If you believed that only a diamond
would scratch glass, then you might be convinced that a common quartz
crystal was a fabulous diamond. Try a variety of rock and mineral
specimens to see which ones will scratch the glass.
There are other items around your house which you can use to test the
hardness of the mineral. A piece of copper has a hardness of three.
Your fingernail has a hardness of about 2.5. If you have specimens of
some of the minerals from the Moh's scale, you could use them too. A
mineral which will scratch a piece of calcite has a hardness of 3 or
more. Keep in mind that two things of the same hardness will scratch
each other. For example, copper will scratch calcite and calcite will
scratch copper.
Testing hardness is just one of the tests used to identify unknown
minerals. If you are interested, go to the library and get a good book
on minerals. It will have information on identifying minerals by how
the break, by the color streak they leave on a tile, by the shape of
their crystals and other tests.
You can buy mineral specimens in the gift shop at most museums, but you
can also find your own. You can probably find a piece of minerals such
as quartz or calcite in the gravel of your driveway. Once you start to
look for them, you will notice rocks and minerals all around you. Just
be careful. It might lead you into a wonderful hobby.