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There are companies which are specialized in producing devices which let you determine the composition of material without destroying the actual material. A popular method is to send X-Rays in the direction of the material and then measure the angle of the reflected X-Rays. Every material has a different angle of reflection. If you want to know how those devices look like go to:

http://www.bruker.com/products/x-ray-diffraction-and-element...

They are very expensive but they are getting cheaper and smaller every year but those methods are far away from being simple.




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