Diamond is made up of carbon. Another form of pure carbon is graphite. Graphite is the stable form of carbon, found at the earth's surface. Despite the fact that they have identical chemical composition, the two minerals are drastically different. Diamond is the hardest known substance and is usually light colored and transparent, while graphite is greasy, easily powdered, and very dark in color. Diamond is the hardest gem on Mohs' hardness scale and graphite is the softest. Diamond is very hard because of its dense packing and interlocking atomic arrangement. Graphite, on the other hand, although it is the same element, is more loosely packed and has a six-sided, layered configuration, which makes it soft (Pough, 1991). The differences between graphite and diamo

The value of a diamond depends on four primary factors. These are (1) color, (2) clarity, (3) cut, and (4) carat weight. A diamond cutter or jeweler determines the color of a diamond by comparing it visually with "knowns," or the diamonds for which the color has already been determined. For example, in "colorless" or not "fancy" stones, the value of the stone goes down with increasing yellow. However, once the color content reaches the point where the stone is considered a fancy stone, it becomes very expensive.

In order to be used in jewelry, after diamonds are mined, they must be cut. Because diamonds have such a high hardness, they are cut using other diamonds. What allows them to be cut at all is the fact that they do not have uniform harness throughout the entire stone. For example, the point of an octahedron is harder than the surface of an octahedral face. Therefore, when powdered diamond is used to cut a diamond crystal, the powder will always contain some particles that are oriented in a "hard" direction in relation to the crystal being cut. (Arem, p.38)

There are many different legends and beliefs associated with diamonds. For example, the Hindus believed that a flawed diamond would bring misfortune, while the Greeks thought that diamonds could protect against poison. (Foa, p.50)

Diamonds are mined all over the world. The world's oldest major source of diamonds is India. For centuries, it has supplied stones to all parts of the globe. (Arem, p.34) Gradually, new places for mining were discovered. Today, there are diamond mines in Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Australia, etc. Despite this abundance in places where mining takes place, high quality diamonds are not abundant at all. On the average, a diamond mine yields less than one carat of diamond for every five tons of rock. Of this, on average, less than 20% is usable for gems and half of this is lost in cutting. (Arem, p.37)

Although they are very hard, diamo

Some common words found in the essay are:
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