The Mohs Scale of Hardness

The Mohs scale of mineral hardness characterizes the scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of a harder material to scratch a softer material. It was created in 1812 by the German mineralogist Friedrich Mohs and is one of several definitions of hardness in materials science. The method, however, is of great antiquity, having first been mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia circa A.D. 77

Friedrich Mohs

Mohs based the scale on ten minerals that are all readily available. As the hardest known naturally occurring substance, diamond is at the top of the scale. The hardness of a material is measured against the scale by finding the hardest material that the given material can scratch, and/or the softest material that can scratch the given material. For example, if some material is scratched by apatite but not by fluorite, its hardness on the Mohs scale would fall between 4 and 5.

The Mohs Hardness Scale is a relative scale. This means that a mineral will scratch any substance lower on the scale and will be scratched by any substance with a higher number. Diamond is not 10 times harder than talc or 1.1 times harder than corundum, as would be the case with an absolute hardness scale (see table bellow). Most often we are able only to narrow down hardness to within a certain range; for example, if an unknown mineral scratches a copper penny but does not scratch a glass plate, its hardness must be greater than 3.0 and less than 5.5. Usually this range of values is sufficient to identify an unknown.