If all the carbon in an apple were converted into diamond, how large would that diamond be?
http://wapsisquare.com/d/20071109.html ...shows a rather large diamond produced. Should it be this large? How many apples would be needed to produce a carat (not a carrot)?
brwalker_6662007-11-10T16:02:02Z
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Ok. I've taken the average mass to be 100g (same as above).
Now: CHO = 13.81g Fat = 0.17g Protein = 0.26g
For simplicity, I assume 40% of CHO is carbon (by mass) giving 5.524g. All of fat can be carbon (ish) and 50% of protein (giving 0.13g). For vitamins, etc, numbers are very small so I will round up later to give a maximum estimate.
Adding my values up I come to around 6g of a 100g apple is carbon. This, assuming the density shown above of 3.52 g/cm^3 gives a maximum volume of around 1.7 cm^3.
However, this is still a little big... But not too much.
There is more than enough carbon in the apple to make most women very happy
1 Carat is only 200 miligrams.
Even a small apple weighs at least 100 grams. Assuming that the apple contains 90% water and the remaining mass as carbohydrates, there would be 10 grams of carbohydrates. Even if the carbohydrates were even 20% carbon, which is low, the diamond would be about 2 grams or 10 Carats.