Color
Color is an excellent way to compare minerals—it's one of the first things that a geologist looks at. Minerals come in many colors—and colors are one reason that minerals are so appealing! Many minerals are known for their beautiful color.

But be careful! In some minerals, color can be deceiving! The common mineral quartz, for example, comes in many colors.

Each of these is actually the mineral quartz, but small particles in each one change its color!

So color is not always a reliable way to identify a mineral. Instead, we can check the mineral's streak.

"Streak" is the color of the powdered mineral. Most minerals always make the same color streak. Quartz's streak is always white, no matter what its color. When we compare our golden cube with gold, we can see that its color is not quite the same: our cube is a paler yellow.

So let's compare their streaks. Scrape each mineral on the unglazed, white tile:

Now let's test another mineral property!

© The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, 2000