Rubies and diamonds, and _The Man Who Would be King_

[Charles Doyle]

Wouldn't it be more interesting (though less vivid) if hail-stones and tumors were measured in diamond-carat equivalents instead of the traditional pea-, marble-, golfball-, grapefruit-/softball-, etc. sizes?

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 22:43:37 -0400
>From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>Subject: Re: Rubies and diamonds, and _The Man Who Would be King_
>
>At 5/30/2007 10:02 PM, you wrote:
>>Richard Burton gave Elizabeth Taylor a 69 carat diamond.  About the size of
>>a golf ball.
>>
>>Sam Clements
>
>OK.  So for diamonds:
>
>The Koh-i-Noor is merely 186 carats uncut, so it was cube root of about two (about 1.3) times the diameter of a golf ball.  Peach.  But it is "believed to be the most precious".
>
>The Golden Jubilee, "the largest faceted diamond ever cut", 546 carats cut, or cube root of about 8 (or 2) times the diameter of a golf ball.  Softball.
>
>The Cullinan, "the largest rough gem-quality diamond ever found", was 3106 carats uncut, or cube root of about 45 (about 3.5) times the diameter of a golf ball --if it was spherical.  Coconut?
>
>[Wikipedia, "List of famous diamonds".]
>
>Joel

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