In which field of science did Friedrich Mohs work?

Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs (German: [moːs]; 29 January 1773 – 29 September 1839) was a German geologist and mineralogist. He was the creator of the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Mohs also introduced a classification of the crystal forms in crystal systems independently of Christian Samuel Weiss.

Mohs was born in Gernrode, in the Harz mountains Germany. He showed a clear interest in science at an early age and received private education before entering the University of Halle.

He started classifying minerals by their physical characteristics, instead of their chemical composition, as had been done traditionally. This emphasis on physical characteristics was at odds with the prevailing chemical systematics.

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18 Comments

Boyd Tracy

The Fredrich Mohs I. knew.performed 5 successive. surgical procedures on my face to removes cancerous area with as little damage possible. There were surgeons from all over the world gathered to observe and learn from the procedure.

Chris Braid

Got that because the mohs scale came up as a question recently!😁

Patty K

Since the hardness of gemstones are measured using the moh scale, that was easy enough

Char

H S Hotchkiss, I learned the Mohs scale in geology too.

John W Shreve

H S Hotchkiss, I learned the Mohs scale in geology.

John W Shreve

H S Hotchkiss, I learned the Mohs scale in geology.

deborahpmercer

Chris Braid, Same here!

Pauline Davison

I picked the surgeon Mohs.

Richard D. Boyle

Brevet heard of this Mohs but I’m VERY familiar with Mohs Surgery, having undergone four for malignant skin cancer over the years. Summers of life guarding as a teen didn’t seem like such a great idea in retrospect.

teresab

Too tricky. We should have been told the gentleman's full name.

David Roy

Chris Oosthuysen, no. The doctor is called Frédéric, not Friedrich.

Howard Groopman

Tough series, for a change. Had to rally to get 5/10, well below my average.

james parrillo

Darlene Davidson, I just had a question about the Mohs scale this week. I did not know the answer then. I remembered it was about the hardness of a substance today. Thank you, Christine, James's wife