A collection of minerals ranging from very soft to very hard. Use as a comparison scale during mineral identification. From softest to hardest, the ten minerals are: talc 1, gypsum 2, calcite 3, fluorite 4, apatite 5, orthoclase 6, quartz 7, topaz 8, corundum 9, and diamond 10. Developed by Friedrich Mohs, a German mineralogist in the early 1800′s.
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