How many carats is your ring?
We typically ask this thinking that carats represents size, when carats are really a weight classification.
A carat is one fifth of one gram.
Therefore when we say we have a two carat diamond ring, we are talking about the weight of the
diamond in the ring, not the size of the diamond in the ring.
Specific Gravity is a scientific term that expresses the density of a material.
(i.e. it is a ratio of that compares the stones weight to the weight of the same volume of water)
These two bits of information combine to tell us something useful about gems.
Chiefly about the relative size of gems.
A gem with higher specific gravity, but of the same weight as a different type of gem, ( ie. 2 carats),
is going to be smaller in size.
That is right, a higher specific gravity will mean the same carat weight gem is smaller in size.
One very important example is a diamond (specific gravity 3.52) and a cubic zirconia (specific gravity 5.80).
A two carat diamond is larger than a two carat cubic zirconia. (most people buy bigger cubic zirconia's because they
can afford too).
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