A
carat is a unit of measurement, it's the unit
used to weigh a diamond. One carat is equal to
200 milligrams, or 0.2 grams.
The
word carat is taken from the carob seeds that
people once used in ancient times to balance
scales. So uniform in shape and weight are these
little seeds that even today's sophisticated
instruments cannot detect more than three
one-thousandths of a difference between them.
Don't
confuse it with 'karat', the method of
determining the purity of gold.
The
process that forms a diamond happens only in very
rare circumstances, and typically the natural
materials required are found only in small
amounts. That means that larger diamonds are
uncovered less often than smaller ones. Thus,
large diamonds are rare and have a greater value
per carat. For that reason, the price of a
diamond rises exponentionaly to its size. Begin
your search below, or return to Understanding
Diamonds.
