Identifying minerals help?!?

Question

Your teacher has given you two minerals that you have never seen before, garnet and hematite. She has not told you which is which and has asked you to identify them. They are the same color. Aside from color, describe at least four of the physical characteristics that you could use to identify the minerals and explain how they would differ for each characteristic.

Answer 1

1. Hardness - using the Moh's Hardness Scale, you can identify the material in some hardness test

2. Streak color - each mineral has its own unique color of streak. streak color can be seen when you scratched the mineral in the back of a tile.

3. luster - it can be greasy, pearly, dull, etc,

4. cleavage/fracture - how it breaks up to; can identify the  crystal shape of the mineral

please refer to this site for more info:

http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/CURR/SCIENCE/s...