Mineral necessarily constant for all sides, which is a function of its structure; crystallographic weakness renders some directions softer than others. An example of this property exists in kyanite, which has a Mohs hardness of 5½ parallel to [001] but 7 parallel to [100]. The most common scale of measurement is the ordinal Mohs hardness scale. Defined by ten indicators, a mineral with a higher index scratches those below it. The scale ranges from talc, a phyllosilicate, to diamond, a carbon polymorph that is the hardest natural material. The scale is provided below: Lustre indicates how light reflects from the mineral's
Corundum in turn derives from the Sanskrit "Kuruvinda". Because of corundum's hardness (pure corundum is defined to have 9.0 on the Mohs scale), it can scratch almost every other mineral. It is commonly used as an abrasive on everything from sandpaper to large tools used in machining metals, plastics, and wood. Some emery is a mix of corundum and other substances, and the mix is less abrasive, with an average Mohs hardness of 8.0. In addition to its hardness, corundum has a density of , which is unusually high for a transparent mineral composed of the low-atomic mass elements aluminium and