A scientist was in the field when he saw a mineral sample. He wanted to determine the relative hardness of the mineral, so he conducted scratch tests. He summarized his results in a table.
What conclusion can you make about the hardness of the mineral?
The mineral that was found is harder then orthoclase pyrite and chalcopyrite since it scratched and left marks on them quartz is the only mineral that is not scratched by the mineral since it is a stronger more resistant mineral.
I can conclude that the mineral that the scientist found is harder than chalcopyrite, pyrite, and orthoclase, but not harder than quartz. I can also conclude that the unknown mineral is a relatively hard mineral.
