what are 3 tests you could do on a rock to see what type of minerals its made of? explain how you do each test

There are about 6 tests that geologists use to test a rock to identify the minerals present.

First, the most common test is the streak test - this entails using a porcelain tile and scraping the mineral across the surface. This tells you the "true" color of the mineral in the powdered form (which can be different from the apparent color of the mineral by visual inspection) An example is hematite, which can have a reddish or silvery apparent color, but will always have a rusty-brown streak.

Another test is the hardness test - this involves using a bunch of different tools (such as fingernail, copper penny, nail, glass plate, streak plate) to identify the mineral's hardness. Geologists use the Mohs hardness scale to assign the hardness of the mineral based on the tools mentioned above.

The last, and most difficult test is the identification and classification of a mineral's cleavage - In minerals that have atomic planes of weakness, the mineral will break in specific geometric shapes (an example is table salt or halite, this mineral will always break in the shapes in cubes whether it is a large chunk or the size of dust particles). Minerals that don't have cleavage have fracture, which is as important to identify as cleavage. Quartz has fracture instead of cleavage.

Hope that this helps.

Hardness - compare it to minerals with a known hardness

Density - weight/volume. The volume can be determined by the change in the level of water when the sample is immersed in a graduated cylinder.

Color - easy to see

Being a chemist, I would try and dissolve the material in a strong acid and then subject it to either chemical tests or analyze it on an atomic absorbition spectrophotometer. This would tell me what metals were present, and many minerals are classified according to their metallic content.

i did this last year... one test is to see how hard it is. we used a penny to try and scratch it. another is the color. and the last is called streak. we had this white block thing that we dragged it on and if it left a streak it helped determine what it was by the color of the streak. we also did another that was the look of the mineral. what we where looking at was the makeup of it. if it had swirls in it or w/e. i think was more and the ones i have mentioned might have had more scientic names to them. hope i helped!!

scratch the surface and vinegar on it. if it foams, then it's limestone... or at least has limestone in it.

scratch, color, anddensity? something like that?