Greetings!!! My name is Maria C. Acuna and I am currently a freshman at the U of A. I am from Tucson, AZ and majoring in Studio Art in the field of Graphic Design. I am 19 years old and I have decided to minor in Art History, but I am not sure yet. I love creating new flyers and designing logos for others. I am into sports especially soccer and tennis. I have played soccer since middle school and tennis since high school. I have not visited many places yet but I have been to El Paso, TX, New Mexico, and California. I hope to do well in college and in life.
Diamonds
Diamonds are the most popular gem in the world. They are known for their unique hardness and variety of uses. Ranging from clear white to black, their color is associated with the level of rarity. The rarest diamonds are colourless or pale blue, most of them are tinted with yellow. They also have a wide range of opacity. The colour of diamonds can be changed by exposure to intense radiation or by heat treatment. Most information on their colour can found at this website http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=30755&tocid=0&query=diamond&ct=eb.
The word "diamond" comes from the Greek word "adamus", which means invincible. They were called this because technically they are 1000 times stronger than rubies or sapphires and the strongest acids in the world could not even tant it. A diamond is composed of pure carbon. Its rate of decay it extremely slow (hence the saying "a diamond is forever"). Even though they are technically not forever they are around long enough to serve many uses to economic world.Diamonds have many uses. Only 20% of diamonds, that are found, are used for jewelry. The other 80% are used in the industry world such as cutting tools, polishing hard metal, phonograph and videodisc needles, and bearings for laboratory instruments (http://library.thinkquest.org/5008/ ). Diamonds can be man-made which are known as synthetic diamonds. Making a synthetic diamond is very expensive, therefore most are produced as grits or small crystals. These are used to provide hard coatings for industrial equipment(grinding wheels, machine tools, wire-drawing dies, quarrying saws, and mining drills).They can also be produce as a film by exposing carbon-containing gas to immense heat. This film can be made on a variety of materials for different uses such as cutting tools, windows for optical devices, or substrates for semiconductors (http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=72598).
Diamonds are not only beautiful but they are very useful.
I am associated with the University of Arizona.
You can send email to me at acuna11@U.Arizona.EDU.