Select the one substance that is not a mineral.
Molasses is not a pure substance. It is made in a factory. Magnetite is a pure substance. It is not made by living things. Hematite is not made by living things. It is a solid.
Minerals are the building blocks of rocks. A rock can be made of one or more minerals.
Minerals and rocks have the following properties:
Property | Mineral | Rock
It is a solid. | Yes | Yes
It is formed in nature. | Yes | Yes
It is not made by organisms. | Yes | Yes
It is a pure substance. | Yes | No
It has a fixed crystal structure. | Yes | No
You can use these properties to tell whether a substance is a mineral, a rock, or neither.
Look closely at the last three properties:
Minerals and rocks are not made by organisms.
Organisms make their own body parts. For example, snails and clams make their shells. Because they are made by organisms, body parts cannot be  minerals or rocks.
Humans are organisms too. So, substances that humans make by hand or in factories are not minerals or rocks.
A mineral is a pure substance, but a rock is not.
A pure substance is made of only one type of matter.  Minerals are pure substances, but rocks are not. Instead, all rocks are mixtures.
A mineral has a fixed crystal structure, but a rock does not.
The crystal structure of a substance tells you how the atoms or molecules in the substance are arranged. Different types of minerals have different crystal structures, but all minerals have a fixed crystal structure. This means that the atoms and molecules in different pieces of the same type of mineral are always arranged the same way.
However, rocks do not have a fixed crystal structure. So, the arrangement of atoms or molecules in different pieces of the same type of rock may be different!
Compare the properties of each substance to the properties of minerals. Select the substance whose properties do not match those of minerals.
Molasses is made in a factory. But all minerals are formed in nature.
Molasses is not a pure substance. But all minerals are pure substances.
So, molasses is not a mineral.
Magnetite is a mineral.
Hematite is a mineral.