How do you tell the difference between a Normal Fault & a Reverse Fault?
First you need to know a couple of other terms. These terms come to us from the mining industry. When minors were working a mine, they noticed that the ore tended to occur along faults. When working at a fault, they would hang their lanterns from the block of rock that was above the fault. So, they called this the hanging wall block (see attached drawing). Mean while, he would be standing on the block that was below the fault. Thus it was called the footwall block. In a normal fault, the hanging wall block move downward with respect to the footwall block. In a reverse fault the hanging wall block move up with respect to the footwall block. You can see some drawings that illustrate this at http://geology.wr.usgs.gov/parks/deform/gfaults.html .
