Guides
Identification guides
The tests you can run at home, and what each one rules out. Enough to turn an anonymous pebble into a name you can defend.
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How to identify a rock
The full method, in the order the tests rule out the most.
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Identifying a beach pebble
What you actually pick up at the water's edge, and what the beach tells you before any test.
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What is this black stone?
Glassy or dull, heavy or light: ten candidates and three tests to tell them apart.
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The Mohs scale, and how to use it
The ten degrees, the household objects that replace them, and the mistakes that ruin the test.
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The streak test
An upturned bathroom tile, and black haematite admits that it is red.
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