EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -The Mohs Hardness Scale is used as a convenient way to help identify minerals. A mineral’s hardness is a measure of its relative resistance to scratching, measured by scratching the mineral against another substance of known hardness on the Mohs Hardness Scale.

Detailed explanation-2: -For further information see articles from the American Mineralogist on microhardness, the Knoop tester, and diamonds. Mohs’ hardness is a measure of the relative hardness and resistance to scratching between minerals.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Mohs scale of mineral hardness (/moʊz/) is a qualitative ordinal scale, from 1 to 10, characterizing scratch resistance of minerals through the ability of harder material to scratch softer material.

Detailed explanation-4: -Diamonds are known for being one of the hardest substances on earth. A diamond is so hard it ranks as a 10 on the Mohs scale–the highest level of hardness.