According to the U.S. Bureau of Mines, the average person consumes or uses 40,000 pounds of minerals each year. Apart from making up the contents of our planet, minerals are vital ingredients for daily life. Minerals bring electricity into our homes, keep our teeth shiny and white, let us write in and erase answers on tests, and more. To begin identifying minerals, it is vital to know name them and how omnipresent they are in our everyday lives.
Instructions
Finding Minerals in your Home
1. Define "mineral." A helpful definition is: a mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic solid which possesses a characteristic internal atomic structure and a definite chemical composition. Materials with these features also have distinguishing physical properties such as color, crystal form, cleavage, luster, streak, etc. Note: Minerals only represent 0.3 percent of our total intake of nutrients but are very important. Without these mineral nutrients we would not be able to utilize the other 99.7 percent of the food we eat.
2. Read a cereal box. Browse the nutrition label and ingredient list from several brands of breakfast cereals. Identify names of minerals (they are macro-minerals) there. Examples of some of these macro-minerals, which we need in plentiful amounts of, include: chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, sulfur and zinc. Micro-minerals that we require only in trace amounts are: chromium, cobalt, copper, chlorine, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and silicon. You can find these micro-minerals, as well as zinc, in most foods and supplements.
3. Find tarnish. When copper tarnishes (dulls or becomes discolored), it turns green on the surface. Green roofs on old buildings indicate the roof is made of copper. (Note: Some of the most massive deposits of copper in the U.S. were found by prospectors by accident when they spotted greenish rocks sticking out of the ground.)
4. Scavenge through your home. Many minerals are used to make common household items or things in and around your building or home. These include: sidewalk, bricks, nails, paint, windows, door knobs, floor tiles, plumbing, wiring, toilets and sinks, chairs, televisions, computers, pencils and so forth.
5. Learn and perform the identity test. Memorize these characteristics and testing methods. Identify and classify minerals using these characteristics:
Hardness -- the mineral's ability to resist scratching. If it's soft, it gets scratched easily; if it's hard, it can't be marred. Determine the hardness of your mineral. Lay the glass plate on a flat table. Scratch the mineral along the glass. If the mineral powders, then use your fingernail to feel if the glass is scratched.
Color -- Minerals are colored because certain wave lengths of light are absorbed. For some minerals, color alone is an identification method. (Example: Malachite is always sea green.) Determine the color. Identify whether your mineral is light-colored or dark-colored (non-metallics only).
Luster -- Shine; or how light is reflected from the surface of a mineral: metallic and non-metallic. Test the luster (metallic or non-metallic) of your mineral.
Streak -- When you scrape the mineral across a piece of unglazed porcelain (streak plate), the "streak" is the color of the powder mark.
Cleavage -- the ability of a mineral to break along planes. Test whether your sample has cleavage (leveled breaking points). Find the mineral's weak spots.
Specific gravity -- the "heaviness" of a mineral defined as a ratio: the weight of a mineral and the weight of an equal volume of water. (Example: Water has a specific gravity of 1.)
6. Select an object in your home or school. This might include: mirror, radio, alarm clock, electrical wires (copper); spare change (copper, nickel). Prepare "mineral content" cards. On a set of index cards, list the key minerals used in each item. Each set should be a different color. Pick one or two of the items evaluated. Look up and study the properties of the minerals used to make those items.
7. Get to know your toothpaste. Compare two (or more) brands of toothpaste. Toothpaste is made out of several minerals including: calcium carbonate, limestone, sodium carbonate, fluorite, mica
and zinc. Check out the ingredient list. Name the mineral ingredients you find. Make a list of these minerals to see which are most common between the two different brands. Each brand of toothpaste contains a different mixture of minerals, but all toothpastes contain abrasive ("hard") minerals that rub away plaque.
8. Start a collection. Find the natural form of each mineral: beautiful, sparkling quartz, copper, zinc and so on. Make a shadow box to display the minerals. Become more aware of their presence in your daily life by visualizing them in their true, colorful, craggy form.
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