 7 th Grade

 Differentiate between minerals and rocks.  Describe the distinguishing properties that can be used to classify minerals. (texture, smell, luster, hardness, crystal shape, streak, reaction to magnets, and acids.  Describe the methods used to identify the distinguishing properties of minerals.

 _____ are made of ________, but _______ are not made of ______________.  What is a mineral? 4 questions 1. Does it have a crystalline structure? 2. Is it a solid? 3. Is it formed in nature? 4. Is it nonliving material?

 A _________ is a naturally formed, inorganic solid with a crystalline structure.

 Minerals are made up of __________. _______________are pure substances that cannot be broken down into simple substances by ordinary chemical means.  All minerals contain one or more of the 92 elements present in the Earth’s crust.

 Each element is made of only one kind of atom. A ______ is the smallest part of an element that has all the properties of that element.  Most minerals are made up of compounds of several different elements.  A __________ is a substance made of two or more elements that have been chemically joined, or bonded together.

 Halite is a mineral that is a compound of sodium and chlorine, but gold is just made of gold.

 A mineral is also made up of one or more crystals. ______________________ are solid, geometric forms of minerals produced by a repeating pattern of atoms that is present throughout the mineral.

 ____________ are composed of various minerals. A mineral is just a mineral.

 If you found two different types of minerals, how would you know what they are?  There are 7 different tests that you can perform to determine what type of mineral you have.

 Color of a mineral. Quartz is clear, but if it has impurities it can be just about any color.  Color is not a reliable indicator of a mineral’s identity.

 The way the surface reflects light is called luster. Shiny or dull.  See the luster chart on page 8  Metallic, submetallic, or nonmetallic.

 The color a mineral in powdered form is called the mineral’s streak.  The color of a sample’s streak is not affected by weathering. Streak is a more reliable than color as an indicator of a mineral’s identity.

 Different types of minerals break in different ways. The way a mineral breaks is determined by it’s atoms.  ____________ is the tendency of some minerals to break along flat surfaces. P. 9 figure 5  ____________ is the tendency of some minerals to break unevenly along curved or irregular surfaces.

 _____________ refers to a mineral’s resistance to being scratched.  You can’t scratch a diamond because it is the hardest mineral there is. But talc is one of the softest minerals.  Scientist use the __________ hardness scale to determine a minerals hardness. Minerals are rated between By trying to scratch a mineral with other minerals to determine its place on the scale

 __________ is the measure of how much matter there is in a given amount of space.  Density is the ratio of an object’s mass to it’s volume. D=M / V

 Some properties are particular to only a few types of minerals.  Fluorescence  Chemical reaction  Optical properties  Radioactivity  Taste  Magnetism