Every secondary public school teacher endures this famous line, "What are we ever going to need this for?" Students in this age group understand they need knowledge as well as what there hormones are indicating. One cannot text without words (misspelled as they are), or one cannot setup digital cameras or printers without recognizing words. Therefore, students know they should read and write enough to communicate. Algebra formulas make no sense to them because algebra has missing components called variables, and a series of operations have to be done in a specific order to find or use this mysterious and intangible variable.
Jewelry gem and findings owners use formulas to convert one weight or size into another kind of weight and size. The jewelry industry has acquired ancient and modern measurements from around the world. The homophones (same sound, different meaning), karat and carat probably come from the carob seed. The karat is the fraction of 24 karat pure gold whereas the carat is the weight of a gemstone. A grain, another small weight, is probably tied to the weight of a grain of wheat or rice. A troy pound has twelve ounces. A troy ounce weighs more than an avoirdupois ounce but an avoirdupois pound has sixteen ounces and weighs more than a troy pound. Pearls are sold by pearl sieve size but are purchased in weights from Japan called mommes.
Gold chain is often sold by the gram even though spot gold price is quoted by the troy ounce. A typical problem for me is to buy a gross (12 dozen) of findings in pennyweights (dwt). If these findings are 14K gold filled, they are 5% of 14K gold which is .588 times the spot price and divided by 144 so that I can sell them individually or in units of 10 or 12. Add the labor for the part, my profit and adjust to the current gold price, and I have today's selling price.
Math is the language of science, and science also is very important to gemology. The Moh scale tests hardness and scratch ability. I can scratch your glass with my diamond, but you cannot scratch my diamond with your glass. The scale is similar to the earthquake scale in which an earthquake that measures 10 is not 10 times a 1 earthquake. It is much more severe. Specific gravity (how much water is displaced) and refractive indices also verify gemstones. Chemicals implanted while crystals are growing can determine whether a ruby or sapphire will emerge. And opal cracks because it has so many water molecules! All of these qualifiers are measured in numbers.
After all those explanations, jewelers must love math. One does not have to do these conversions by hand and calculator anymore. There are so many math loving jewelers that have set up conversion tables and routines. A big hug to all of those who have at last made my life a little simpler.
Myrna, from richardhetzel.com
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