the tendency of a mineral to break along flat surfaces is referred to as?

Question

A:cleavage
B:hardness
C:streak
D:fracture

Answer 1

Yep, definitely cleavage (lol and you can describe how many directions the cleavage is in and whether it's 'perfect cleavage'... a great opportunity for geokes..)

Hardness is the resistance of the surface of the mineral to scratching, it's dependent on the crystal structure of the mineral, and usually expressed on 'Moh's Hardness Scale' - as a number from one to ten, one being lowest (talc, where talcum powder comes from, has a hardness of 1; diamond has a hardness of 10)

The streak is the colour of the mineral when powdered (it is useful in identifying minerals as it is a more constant property than colour - the slightest difference in trace element chemistry might have a huge effect on colour, hence all the diff varieties of quartz...). Streak is usually found by scratching the mineral along an unglazed piece of porcelain.

Fracture is the way a mineral breaks when it doesn't break along a plane (flat surface).

Answer 2

A:cleavage

Cleavage, in mineralogy, is the tendency of crystalline materials to split along definite planes, creating smooth surfaces, of which there are several named types.

This is of technical importance in the electronics industry and in the cutting of gemstones. While precious stones are generally cleaved by impact, man-made single crystals of semiconductor materials are generally sold as thin wafers which are much easier to cleave. Simply pressing a silicon wafer against a soft surface and scratching its edge with a diamond scribe is usually enough to cause cleavage; however, when dicing a wafer to form chips, a procedure of scoring and breaking is often followed for greater control. The vast majority of commercial semiconductors (Si, Ge, GaAs, InSb, etc.) are diamond cubic, a space group for which octahedral cleavage is observed. This means that some orientations of wafer allow near-perfect rectangles to be cleaved.

Answer 3

It's been a while since Geology 101, but I'm thinking cleavage.

Answer 4

Yep, it's A. cleavage.

Answer 5

a. cleavage

Answer 6

CRACK