Polyxene

The kinds of rock environments where the mineral typically forms — igneous, metamorphic, hydrothermal, sedimentary, pegmatitic, and so on.

Resistance to being scratched, ranked on the Mohs scale from 1 (talc, marked by a fingernail) to 10 (diamond, scratches everything below it). The classic field test.

Whether and how much light passes through a mineral, from transparent (you can see through it) to translucent, then opaque.

The hue of the mineral itself. Often unreliable for identification — many species occur in several colours depending on trace impurities or radiation damage.

The colour of a mineral's powder, drawn by scraping it across an unglazed porcelain plate. Far more consistent than surface colour.

The shape of a broken surface that doesn't follow cleavage — conchoidal (curved, like broken glass), uneven, hackly, or splintery.

Mass per unit volume, in grams per cubic centimetre. A useful sorting tool: barite is twice as dense as quartz at the same size.

Chemical elements that make up the mineral's ideal formula, listed by atomic symbol with their share of the total mass.