Why do we value diamonds?

[roger]

I wonder how far we would get suggesting that women spend 3 months salary for an over/under shotgun for men as an engagement present (substitute guitar, bass boat, or whatever).

I think I'll start lobbying for this. At least there is some utility to these.

 

[Dinwar]

I could get a VERY beautiful demascus steel bastard sword for a LOT less than that. Three months salary would be a full suit of Maximillian plate if I play it right...

I like this plan!

 

[Jake Dale]

Why do we value diamonds?

because you want to.

 

[ben m]

Well yeah, but a gemstone of the second-hardest material would need to bash against a diamond to be damaged. And the third-hardest would need to clash with one of the higher-ranked. What are the odds?

Unfortunately, Al2O3 (Mohs hardness 8) is a common component of granite, and therefore of sand, and therefore of concrete. So the daily life of any gemstone other than diamond can commonly bring it into contact with minerals as hard as itself.

 

[shadron]

Well yeah, but a gemstone of the second-hardest material would need to bash against a diamond to be damaged. And the third-hardest would need to clash with one of the higher-ranked. What are the odds?

Actually, that's not true. Diamonds and other gem stones (mineral specimens in general) are all to some extent brittle. Hardness it the ability to scratch another, but strength is not the same thing. All crystalline minerals are open to splitting along natural cleavage lines; if the weren't true, all your diamonds would look like quartz river rocks.

 

[Damien Evans]

Actually, that's not true. Diamonds and other gem stones (mineral specimens in general) are all to some extent brittle. Hardness it the ability to scratch another, but strength is not the same thing. All crystalline minerals are open to splitting along natural cleavage lines; if the weren't true, all your diamonds would look like quartz river rocks.

Wouldn't worry me, River Quartz looks pretty cool.

 

[Joey McGee]

Paul Bloom seems to know a lot about why we value things that are useless

I'd like to see the results of a study done to see if people can tell real from fake. I was quite relieved to discover there is nothing magical about a Stradivarious.

 

[Retrograde]

Wouldn't worry me, River Quartz looks pretty cool.

I wanted a little trilobite in a simple, understated setting, but since I don't wear rings anyway there wasn't much point. I do, however, have a pendant with a cool piece of rutilated quartz. And as far as I'm concerned you can't go wrong with amber, and the more insects the better.

I'd like to see the results of a study done to see if people can tell real from fake. I was quite relieved to discover there is nothing magical about a Stradivarious.

I'm always pleased when I find that something I dislike is really expensive: I somehow feel virtuous when I save the money I wasn't planning on spending anyway, like on that expensive bottle of wine that ranked last at the tasting, or the butt-ugly Jaguars.

 

[Dinwar]

The key is selection. And trilobites look best on a necklace, Felxicals in particular (the Isotilus are too Flava-Flave for me).

 

[Craig4]

Because of what happens after she opens the box containing the diamonds.

 

[gph]

Other than industrial applications it's what I like to call "shiny rock syndrome". It's similar to the dog blurting out "squirrel!" in the movie "Up".

 

[Dinwar]

Doesn't work though. Labrodorite is much more visually interesting, as are opals, a number of feldspars who's names escape me, fluorite, quartz of various types, cinnabar (don't lick that one), hematite, some calcite, those little crystals that grow on wine corks, and a whole slue of other minerals. Malechite and azurite, but those are already sought-after. Lapis lazuli. Glass, but that was mentioned earlier.

 

[Craig4]

Doesn't work though. Labrodorite is much more visually interesting, as are opals, a number of feldspars who's names escape me, fluorite, quartz of various types, cinnabar (don't lick that one), hematite, some calcite, those little crystals that grow on wine corks, and a whole slue of other minerals. Malechite and azurite, but those are already sought-after. Lapis lazuli. Glass, but that was mentioned earlier.

Yes but does giving any of those minerals lead to getting out the gladiator and Roman matron costumes? See, I thought not.

 

[Rogue Primate]

I've never been a normal person when it comes to minerals. When my wife and I were looking at engagement rings I spent my time looking for fluid inclusions, not because they show low quality in the diamonds but because they're really cool.

Brownian motion ?

 

[Dinwar]

Well, considering I met my wife at a rock show (gem and rock hound, that is), and I actually gave her some gypsum crystals, I'd have to say "Yes." My brother-in-law uses labrodorite, to similar effect. Oddly enough, with geologists rocks in general don't work. Wine does. Beer is better. Good whiskey is perfect.

Oh! I forgot serpentine! I forget where my hunk went...I should find that....Anyway, it's a beautiful bright green ore, state ore of California.

Brownian motion ?

This is one of those things that I will never forget. Sleep-deprived, over-worked, and in the petrology lab for about ten hours straight, and my prof. stops us and shows us this little bubble moving around. Didn't seem important, until we realized WHY it was moving. That's one of two times that prof said "If you don't find this fascinating, get out. You're not going to make it."

 

[7th sextile]

I find this one disturbing. It looks like a Salvador Dali painting: her face is fairly normal (but still a little creepy), but her hair is like those melting clocks. It should not exist in our reality.

Pretty good reason it seems to totally rip off Dali though.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

There is no spoon, but the cake is an eternal truth.

The cake is a lie.

 

[quarky]

I admire the hardness of a diamond, and the way it sequesters carbon...but I never thought a diamond was much to look at.

As a child, i was told that dogs were man's best friends, and i concur
I was also told that diamonds were a girl's best friend.
That scared me.

Do women need to scratch softer minerals?
Or do they simply love the idea of the male chumps that dig them out of the mines, and the other male chumps that have to purchase them as a symbol of love?

I find this very troubling.

I gave my love a tree frog, and she gave it freedom.
No money was exchanged in the process.

I would hope that tree frogs become the new symbol of love, and diamonds are used to scratch stuff.

Diamonds are hard. Very hard.

Love is also very hard, so I sort-of get it.

But I don't have to like it.

 

[GlennB]

Actually, that's not true. Diamonds and other gem stones (mineral specimens in general) are all to some extent brittle. Hardness it the ability to scratch another, but strength is not the same thing. All crystalline minerals are open to splitting along natural cleavage lines; if the weren't true, all your diamonds would look like quartz river rocks.

I know this, but the discussion at that point was really about abrasion.

 

[Dymanic]

Hardness it the ability to scratch another, but strength is not the same thing.

Around Amador county, California, the story is often told about a stone found in a placer mine near the town of Volcano, which quite probably was a rather large diamond. The miners of (aptly named) Jackass Gulch had it on good authority (Pliny the Elder, most likely) that the proper way to confirm this was to place the stone to be tested upon an anvil and give it a good swat with a sledgehammer -- proving only that with enough human stupidity, nothing is forever.