Uses of Minerals 

You’ll explore a selection of minerals, products of minerals, and then provide your reasoning as to why each particular mineral is matched to specific products.

For example, a diamond has a hardness of 10. So, if I provided the blade of a band saw as an example item in this activity, you might describe how in order for the saw to cut into hard materials, it would need to be made up of a mineral that was the hardest of them all! Hardness is only one of the properties that you could use in your reasoning to match items to minerals, so be sure to look at the chemical formulas for clues and consider other properties as well. Note that you may not have seen all of these minerals in lab, but you are welcome to go about your research using Google. Good luck!

INSTRUCTIONS: There are 15 minerals to choose from as listed in the “minerals in our everyday lives” guide. You only have to correctly match TEN of the minerals provided in the guide to the below items and state your reasoning as to why this mineral is used for these products and how you came to know that answer (e.g., diamonds are used in saw blades because they are the hardest mineral and can be useful in cutting through many materials). You should use the rest of the hand out and Google to determine the reason the mineral is used for this purpose. Remember: it does not have to be because of the hardness.