Rosa's heart was racing from the four cups of coffee she had just finished, but she thought she might be having a heart attack.
A carat is a unit of weight for diamonds and other gemstones. One carat equals 200 milligrams (0.200 grams). There are 453 grams in a pound (1,000 grams to a kilogram). Therefore, if your fiancee weighs 170 pounds, you have a 385,050-carat fiancee! A karat, when used with gold, is a unit of purity-- 24-karat gold is pure gold, but usually you mix gold with a metal like copper or silver to make jewelry (because pure gold is too soft). Each karat indicates 1/24th of the whole.
One gemstone carat is 200 mg. Carat, a measure of weight, should not be confused with karat, which refers to gold purity. The price per carat of different gemstones can vary enormously, from as little as one dollar to tens of thousands of dollars per carat. Many factors influence the price per carat of gems.