1. The difference between rocks & minerals

It is not easy to tell the difference between rocks & minerals because there are so many kinds of them. It takes years of study to be able to accurately identify a mystery rock and even then rockhounds want to know where the specimen came from. 

Rocks

All rocks are made of 2 or more minerals, but minerals are not made of rocks. To see some pictures of different kinds of rocks,

Rock Words: There are many common names for rocks and the usually give you an idea of how big the rock is. Here are a few:

	boulder - large, taller than a person
	rock - large, you could get your arms around it or a bit smaller but it is usually jagged, broken off a bigger piece of rock
	river rock - round rocks that are along the edge & at the bottom of fast-flowing rivers
	stone - medium, you could hold it in two hands
	pebble - small, you can hold it with two fingers, could get stuck in your shoe, usually rounded
	sand - made up of tiny pieces of rock, grains of sand
	grain - tiny, like a grain of rice or smaller, often found on a beach
	dust - really fine powder that is mixed in with sand or soil
	mountain - huge, giant hunk of rock that is still attached to the earth's crust, doesn't move, tall

Minerals

A mineral is the same all the way through. That is one reason we speak of a sample or a specimen rather than a rock. There are about 3000 known minerals on earth. Al rocks are made up of 2 or more of these minerals. To see some pictures of different kinds of minerals,