Minerals are apart of our daily lives. Everything from cars, roads, cell phones, pencils, and table salt are made using minerals. In the United States alone, about three trillion tons of products made from minerals are consumed each year.
There are over 4000 different minerals and each of those minerals has a unique set of physical properties. These include: color, streak, hardness, luster, cleavage, fracture, magnetism, solubility and many more. These physical properties are useful for identifying minerals.