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Moh's Scale of Hardness

The universal scale used to test the hardness of a mineral or rock is known as Moh's scale. It was
devised by the Austrian mineralogist Frederick Moh in the early 1800's as a crude but practical
method of comparing scratch resistance. Hardness can be tested by comparing resistance to
fracture, indentation or breakage however Moh's scale refers only to resistance to abrasion.

Hardness Mineral Occurances & Uses


1 Talc Talcum Powder
Used in plaster of paris, deposited in lake and sea
2 Gypsum
water
3 Calcite Limestone and most shells contain calcite
4 Fluorite Fluorine in Fluorite prevents tooth decay
5 Apatite Infrequently used as a gemstone
6 Orthoclase Common constituent of most granites
Regularly found in passage tomb cemeteries in
7 Quartz
Europe
The November birthstone. Can be found in the
8 Topaz
Ural mountains.
Sapphire and Ruby are varieties of corundum.
9 Corundum Twice as hard as Topaz. Sometimes used as an
abrasive.
Used in Jewellery and cutting tools. Four times as
10 Diamond
hard as Corundum.

Moh chose the minerals because they were common or readily available at the time. The Moh's
Hardness scale is not a linear scale unlike the scale of absolute hardness. So Orthoclase at 6 is
not twice as hard as Calcite at 3, nor is the difference between talc and gypsum the same as the
difference between Corundum and Diamond.

An absolute hardness scale gives a clearer idea of how hard the minerals are in relation to each
other. As you can see in the scale below, Orthoclase is not even twice as hard as Apatite however
diamond is four times harder than Corundum.

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