Answer:
Scratch it against a streak plate to see the color of its residue.
Hold light to it and examine its luster.
Hit it with a hammer and see how it breaks.
Examine its texture and see if it's rough, smooth, or glassy.
A mineral can be identified by it's physical and chemical properties. A mineral can be identified by color, streak, luster, density, hardness, cleavage and fracture.
Following tests can help in identification of a mineral.These are:
1. Scratch it against a streak plate to see the color of it's residue: In this test a mineral is rub over the streak plate, the power residue left after this process is used to identify the mineral.
2. Hold light to it and examine its luster: In this test luster property of the mineral can be analyzed. It examines how light reflects off from the surface of the mineral. Depending upon the internal and external structure of the mineral different minerals will show different luster property.
3. Hit it with a hammer and see how it breaks: In this test internal structure property of mineral can be analyzed. The pattern of atoms in the internal structure of the mineral will determine how mineral will break.
4.Examine its texture and see if it is rough, smooth, or glassy: In this test the physical property of mineral being analyzed. Every mineral exhibit difference in texture and external appearance according to the atomic composition of mineral.