central heating - a heating system in which air or water is heated at a central furnace and sent through the building via vents or pipes and radiators
exists and is an alternate of . Five physical characteristics of a mineral are: hardness, luster, diaphaneity, colour, and streak.
Using Characteristics of Minerals to Identify Them. Most minerals can be characterized and classified by their unique physical properties: hardness, luster, color, streak, specific gravity, cleavage, fracture, and tenacity. Hardness. The ability to resist being scratchedâor hardnessâis one of the most useful properties for identifying minerals. Hardness is determined by the ability of one mineral to scratch another. Federick Mohs, a German mineralogist, produced a hardness scale (table 5) using a set of ten standard minerals.