[banging in metal sound] Can you really tell a real diamond from a
fake one? In this video, we're gonna run 5 tests to
show you how. Keep in mind that some of these tests might
be inconconclusive on their own, so it's always a good idea for you to run multiple tests
to determine if your diamond is real or fake! Number 1: The Water Test At three and a half times the density of water,
diamonds are pretty dense minerals. This means that if you drop one in water,
it'll sink. When it comes to fake diamonds, on the other
hand, you may have heard that some may actually float or stay suspended in the water. This is simply not true. Even quartz and glass are denser than water,
so a fake diamond made out of these will sink too. And when dealing with one of the most popular
diamond substitutes around, like the synthetic cubic zirconia or CZ, it's actually heavier
and denser than a diamond, so it'll sink even faster! Let's see that again in slow motion. Notice the difference? Despite all this, it's really easy to make
a mistake and obtain misleading results when conducting the water test, so we recommend
that you also run more tests like the following… Number 2: The Scratch Test Diamonds are not just dense, they're hard. In fact, they're the hardest substance known
to man, scoring a perfect 10 on the famous Mohs hardness scale. This simply means that a diamond will scratch
or cut another substance that's not as hard as it, like glass. Even though it is a bit difficult to press
this 1 carat diamond firmly against the champagne bottle, it scratches the bottle pretty easily,
creating a deeper and deeper groove into the glass the more we rub it up and down. The fake diamond also scratches the glass
surface, but not as easily as the diamond. That's because our cubic zirconia is also
harder than glass. But what happens when we try to scratch the
diamond with the CZ? Nothing...not even a single scratch. Now let's reverse the roles and attempt the
same thing to see what happens... Our poor diamond simulant is all scratched
up! It wasn't even a fair fight! And you probably guessed it by now, only a
diamond can scratch another diamond. Number 3: Newspaper Test For this test we won't need a newspaper, just
an X or a dot on a piece of paper. Diamonds refract or bend a portion of the
light that hits them, while glass and certain diamond imitations, like cubic zirconia, bend
relatively less light. This means that when you place a diamond of
decent quality over text, it will refract light so intensely that you really won't be
able to make out what you're reading at all. On the other hand, doing the same thing with
a diamond simulant like CZ will have a totally different effect. Notice that the fake diamond is a lot more
transparent. That's because it doesn't refract light as
well as a diamond. Do you notice the difference? Number 4: The Flame Test Here's an interesting one. Think you can burn a diamond? It takes nature billions of years to make
diamonds 93 miles below the Earth's surface. That's where the tiny gemstones experience
extreme pressures and scorching temperatures above 1000 degrees Celsius. But after they're made, can these little suckers
really take the heat! Let's see... We're going to put a real diamond and a fake
one in the fire and heat them up for 20 seconds, before rapidly cooling them in a glass of
water. Let's do the real diamond first... Oops, right away our diamond turned black
from the heat. Did we damage it?! Let's cool it down and see! By its outward appearance, it seems that our
diamond suffered some damage. Let's try to clean it up. Wiping it with a little alcohol. Voilà! No damage whatsoever! Now let's see how our cubic zirconia reacts
to the fire. While the diamond wasn't affected by the rapid
change in temperature, a fake diamond made out of glass, quartz or cubic zirconia will
shatter. This is some real damage! Check out the side by side comparison. Anyone ready to put their diamond to the test? Number 5 : Conductivity Test Moissanites are considered by many to be the
best fake diamonds around, and like diamonds, they are very hard, scoring a 9.25 on the
Mohs scale. That's higher than any gemstone used in jewelry
besides diamonds! Despite their similarities, most natural diamonds
do not conduct electricity like moissanites do. So let's run this test. We'll need a conductivity tool like the Gemoro
ULTRATester 3 Plus. A lot of jewelers and diamond buyers use tools
like this and you can easily find one on Amazon. We'll test our 1 carat diamond first. Green...it's a diamond. And now for our 5-carat moissanite...our conductivity
tool detects it easily. And trust me, you don't want to make a mistake
at the 5-carat level. A natural diamond of this size can be 10s
to 100s of times more expensive than a moissanite, which might translate into hundreds of thousands
of dollars! You owe it to yourself to be able to tell
them apart! Here's a bonus treat! We already know that diamonds are the hardest
substance on the planet, but does that mean that they can be struck with a hammer and
survive?! Breaking a good quality diamond of this size
can easily make this a $5,000 experiment! [loud metal sound] What the [bleep]! [loud gong sound] What just happened?! Don't worry, I promise that we just sacrificed
a cubic zirconia, not a diamond! Even though diamonds are the hardest mineral
on Earth, remember that the hardness measures the ability to resist scratching, not a blow
from a hammer! Tenacity, not hardness, is what measures a
material's resistance to blows and in this respect, diamonds are considered brittle. So while steel won't scratch a diamond, it'll
certainly shatter if struck at the right angle, especially at the tip. Let us know what you thought of our real-vs-fake
tests. If there's another test that you would like
to see, let us know as well. Leave a comment below and click the subscribe
button if you enjoy content like this. See you next time! [closing music]
