| Diamonds Around the World |
| A Virtual Science Fair Project |
| Home |
| About this Project |
| About our Team |
| Places we Visited |
| How Diamonds are Formed |
| Diamonds in Saskatchewan |
| Diamond Production |
| What People Do With Diamonds |
| The Value of Diamonds |
| Interesting Facts |
| The Dark Side |
| Findings |
| Thanks |
The value of diamonds is measured by four characteristics known as the 4C's.
The quality of a diamond is measured by its cut, colour and clarity. The carat weight measures the size of the diamond. Of all the 4C's, cut is directly influenced by humans. Colour, clarity and carat weight are all natural factors.
A diamond that is not cut yet is called a rough diamond. A cut diamond would be worth more money than an uncut one. It is important to distinguish between cut and shape. We learned at our field trip to Birk’s Jeweler’s in Saskatoon that the most popular type of cut is the round brilliant. Some of the other popular shapes of diamonds include Oval, Marquise, Pear, Heart and Emerald.TOP
The colour of a diamond is one of the most important things in finding its value. The closer is to being totally clear, the more valuable the diamond is.
There are also fancy coloured diamonds. There are many reasons for diamonds to be coloured. There are common reasons why diamonds are sometimes coloured yellow, green, blue, brown or pink. Below is an explanation of why diamonds are sometimes coloured.
Nitrogen is an element that absorbs blue light, making a diamond yellow. The element Boron absorbs red light and without the presence of nitrogen, the diamond with Boron makes it blue. An example of a diamond containing boron is the famous Blue Hope diamond. When you look at a diamond through a powerful microscope, it would look like a lattice, or an “x and o” pattern of atoms. When part of the pattern of atoms, or lattice, is missing, the diamond looks green. On the other hand, when there are discolorations in the lattice, a diamond may look brown, also known as champagne diamonds. Pink, the most rare, is a combination of dislocations and when part of the atom pattern is missing.TOP
Every diamond has unique characteristics. When we toured the Saskatchewan science research council we learned that during the formation of a diamond unpure or non-diamond crystals can get caught in the diamond. These tiny flaws are what makes each diamond unique. The more clear a diamond is the more valuable it is. The clarity gradings range from flawless to imperfect.TOP
Carat is a unit of weight for a diamond. The term "carat" is derived from the original method of using carob tree seeds to weigh diamonds. One seed from this tree was equivalent to one carat.
Diamonds are usually weighed before a jeweler put the diamond in the ring or necklace. Diamonds are priced per carat, according to their size and quality. Although the carat weight of a diamond determines its size, it does not necessarily determine a diamond's quality. Therefore, where two diamonds have the same carat weight, the one of better quality will be higher priced.
The actual weight of one carat is now considered to be 0.2 grams. To assist in accurately describing the weight of diamonds each carat is divided into 100 points. Diamonds of less than one carat in weight are known as "pointers". For example, a 0.15 carat diamond would be called a "15 pointer".TOP