Hardness

Hardness is how hard something is. It's like how hard it is to poke a balloon versus a rock. You can think of it like a "toughness scale." It's used to describe how easily one material can scratch or dent another material.

We measure hardness with something called "Mohs scale." Mohs scale is like a ruler that shows how hard different materials are compared to one another. Imagine it like a ladder where each rung is a different level of hardness. The harder the material, the higher up the ladder it is.

For example, at the bottom of the ladder is talc. Talc is very soft, so it is easy to scratch and dent. But at the top is diamond. Diamond is very hard, so it is difficult to scratch or dent.

We use the Mohs scale to help us figure out which materials are best for certain tasks. For example, we might want to use a very hard material like diamond to cut things like glass, while we might want to use a softer material like rubber to make a bouncy ball.

So hardness is just a way of measuring how hard or tough something is compared to other materials. It helps us figure out what materials to use for different tasks.