11. A student has four known minerals and one unknown mineral. The student wants to perform a scratch test to find out the hardness of the unknown mineral. The known minerals and their value on the Mohs Hardness Table are:
Quartz : 7
Fluorite : 4
Calcite : 3
Talc : 1
Which scratch test result would provide the most information about the hardness of the unknown mineral? (1 point)
The mineral is scratched by fluorite but not scratched by calcite.
The mineral is scratched by quartz but not scratched by talc.
The mineral is scratched by both quartz and fluorite.
The mineral is not scratched by calcite or talc.
The Mohs Hardness Scale is a scale that measures the hardness of minerals based on their ability to scratch other minerals. A mineral with a higher number on the scale can scratch a mineral with a lower number, but not the other way around.
In this case, the student has four known minerals and one unknown mineral. The goal is to perform a scratch test to determine the hardness of the unknown mineral. To do this, the student needs to find a known mineral that can scratch the unknown mineral.
Looking at the known minerals and their hardness values, we can see that quartz has a hardness of 7, fluorite has a hardness of 4, calcite has a hardness of 3, and talc has a hardness of 1.
To determine the hardness of the unknown mineral, the student should perform a scratch test using each of the known minerals. The result that provides the most information about the hardness of the unknown mineral is the one that scratches the unknown mineral but does not get scratched by it.
Based on the given options, the result that would provide the most information about the hardness of the unknown mineral is: The mineral is scratched by quartz but not scratched by talc.
By scratching the unknown mineral with quartz and observing that the unknown mineral gets scratched, the student can determine that the unknown mineral has a hardness greater than 7 (the hardness of quartz). Additionally, by observing that the unknown mineral does not get scratched by talc, the student can conclude that the unknown mineral has a hardness greater than 1 (the hardness of talc).
Therefore, the option "The mineral is scratched by quartz but not scratched by talc" would provide the most information about the hardness of the unknown mineral.