A set of instruments designed to evaluate the relative scratch resistance of supplies constitutes a significant useful resource in supplies science and geology. Sometimes, such a set contains a sequence of minerals or standardized implements, every possessing a chosen score on a comparative ten-point scale. These kits facilitate the identification and categorization of unknown specimens based mostly on their capacity to be scratched by, or to scratch, objects of recognized worth on this scale. As an illustration, a mineral that may scratch apatite (hardness of 5) however is scratched by orthoclase (hardness of 6) could be assigned a hardness between 5 and 6.
The importance of those instruments lies of their accessibility and ease of use for preliminary materials characterization. Their employment permits a fast and comparatively cheap approximation of a substance’s resistance to abrasion, a vital property in figuring out its suitability for varied functions. Traditionally, this technique offered one of many earliest systematic approaches to mineral identification and stays a elementary part of introductory geoscience training. The fast evaluation capabilities additionally profit subject geologists in rapid on-site evaluation.
