AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING XXXI

1. A carat is a unit of weight used to measure the size of a gemstone, such as a diamond. A karat is a measurement indicating the proportion of gold in an alloy.

The weight of a carat is set at 200 milligrams, or 0.2 grams. Thus a 2-carat diamond weights 400 milligrams, or 0.4 grams. (The weight of a carat is based historically on the weight of a carob bean.) 

The word karat refers to the purity or fineness of the gold. One karat is equal to 1/24 part of pure gold in an alloy. Thus a 14-karat gold ring consists of 14 parts gold and 10 parts of some other metal, like copper. Pure gold is 24 karats.

The words carat and karat are (understandably) frequently confused, even by professional jewelers. In a monument to confusion, using carat in place of karat to indicate the pureness of gold is considered acceptable. But it is considered incorrect to use  karat in place of carat to indicate the weight or size of a stone. This basically renders the two words indistinguishable.

Caret is this editorial symbol (^) meaning something needs to be inserted. It has nothing to do with carat or karat. Don't even think about carrot.

2. The CAT in CAT Scan stands for Computerized Axial Tomography. Tomography is imaging by sectioning.

 

3. Daisy Duck has three nieces - April, May, and June - created to be counterparts to Donald's three nephews - Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

 

4. The word OXYMORON is an oxymoron - from the Greek, meaning sharp-dull.

 

5.  British anatomist Henry Gray published the first edition of his anatomy textbook in 1858. The book is currently in its 40th edition.

6. Germany's Kiel Canal is the world's busiest man-made water way and second only to the English Channel as the busiest waterway in the world. The canal connects the Baltic and North Seas. It carries more sea-going ships that the Suez and Panama Canals combined.

7. Budapest-born Tom Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor to ever serve in the U.S. Congress. He survived by twice escaping forced-labor camps, and found refuge in a safe house set up by Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who rescued thousands of other Hungarian Jews from the Nazis. Lantos represented California's Bay area in the House of Representatives from 1981 until his death in 2008.