Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from how stuff works dot com where
Speaker 1: smart Happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question, what
Speaker 1: is a carrot and what is the difference between a
Speaker 1: carrot spelled with a C that's used with diamonds and
Speaker 1: a carrot spelled with a K that's used with gold.
Speaker 1: A carrot spelled with a C is a unit of
Speaker 1: weight for diamonds and other gemstones. One carrot equals two
Speaker 1: hundred milligrams, about a fifth of a gram. There are
Speaker 1: four hundred fifty three grams in a pound, so if
Speaker 1: you had a one pound diamond, it would be a
Speaker 1: two thousand, two hundred sixty carrot diamond. A carrot, when
Speaker 1: used with gold spelled with a K, is a unit
Speaker 1: of purity. Four carrot Gold is pure gold, but usually
Speaker 1: you mix gold with a metal like copper or silver
Speaker 1: when you make jewelry because pure gold is too soft
Speaker 1: and it's also really expensive. Each carrot indicates one four
Speaker 1: of the whole. So if a piece of jewelry is
Speaker 1: made of metal that is eighteen parts gold and six
Speaker 1: parts copper, that's eighteen carrot gold. Where did such a
Speaker 1: funny unit of purity come from? It turns out that
Speaker 1: a German cold coin called a mark was common about
Speaker 1: a thousand years ago. It happened away twenty four carrots
Speaker 1: or four point eight grams. The purity of gold in
Speaker 1: the coin was expressed in the number of carrots of
Speaker 1: gold spelled with a C in this case present in
Speaker 1: the twenty four carrot coin. So the two words carrot
Speaker 1: and carrot are actually related through this process about a
Speaker 1: thousand years old. Do you have any ideas or suggestions
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Speaker 1: at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more
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