Question 1

Well, in deciding between whether the formation is either a rock or a mineral, there are many thngs that one must look at. First of all, rocks are made out of minerals so whatever is a rock it is a mineral also, but all minerals are not rocks. If it is a mineral there are many tests that one can go about to figure out what mineral it is. You can look at the cleavage of the mineral, the hardness of the mineral, the color and texture of the mineral. And if it is a rock there are many tests one can do to figure out what rock it is. You can look at the rocks' grain size, the color, and so on and so on.
Now, to determine whether or not it is a mineral or a rock, this gets trickier. Minerals won't have different grain sizes because they are minerals that have not formed into rocks yet. In most rocks you can tell that there is a mixture of substances. However, there are a couple minerals that are also rocks so at this point it would probably be of best interest to use a chart to help determine which type of mineral or rock it is. By using a chart you can determine if it is a rock or a mineral and then determine which type of rock/mineral it is.
Some stumbling blocks that you might come across when trying to make this distinction is that there are not a lot of qualities about either rocks or minerals that makes them extremely distinghishable. One might just have to run many tests and compare with charts to figure it out.