eli5 What determines whether a gem is a sapphire, ruby, emerald, diamond, etc if those gems don’t necessarily have to be the most common thought color? For example, sapphires can be colors other than blue. What’s the difference between a red sapphire and a ruby?
In: 5800
I guess the names are from medieval times but now have been grouped based on scientific findings. Medieval people would probably call red gems rubies.
As the top answers suggest, it’s the minerals that are present when the gemstone is formed.
The more heat and pressure, the more intense the color.
Bonus answer (I know you didn’t ask), colored diamonds are also determined due to the minerals present.
Yellow diamonds = Nitrogen
Blue diamonds = Boron
Well, what makes them different is their chemical makeup and the way they’re formed.
For example, sapphires and rubies are both made from a mineral called corundum. Sapphires are usually blue, but they can also come in other colors like pink, yellow, and green. If a corundum gem is red, it’s called a ruby.
So, basically, the only thing that makes a red corundum gem a ruby instead of a red sapphire is its name. It’s still made from the same mineral as a sapphire, but it’s just called something different because of its color.
The same goes for other gems too. Emeralds are made from a mineral called beryl and diamonds are made from carbon. They all have different colors and properties based on what they’re made of and how they’re formed.
I guess the names are from medieval times but now have been grouped based on scientific findings. Medieval people would probably call red gems rubies.
As the top answers suggest, it’s the minerals that are present when the gemstone is formed.
The more heat and pressure, the more intense the color.
Bonus answer (I know you didn’t ask), colored diamonds are also determined due to the minerals present.
Yellow diamonds = Nitrogen
Blue diamonds = Boron
Lots of similar answers yet nobody touching on history. By and large the type of gem IS determined by its appearance, originally.
* Sapphire comes from Sanskrit or a related language and means ‘dark stone’. The word is so old blue wasn’t its own color, yet.
* Ruby means ‘reddish’ in the original Latin.
* Emerald meant ‘shining/flashing precious stone’ in some Semitic language.
* Garnet is related to ‘pomegranate’, a fruit with translucent red flesh.
* Amber is named after the stones formed in whale guts.
* Aquamarine should be obvious.
* Lapis is Latin for ‘stone’ and lazuli is related to ‘sky blue’ in a bunch of languages, including their modern descendants like Portuguese (azul) though in most the L shifted to an R as in azzurro, azur, azure…
* Beryl and Topaz are named after the places they were found. Bit of a stretch on the meaning of ‘appearance’.
* Some exceptions: Diamond comes from Ancient Greek ‘unbreakable’, Amethyst from ‘not drunk’ because they thought it prevents intoxication and Opal is basically a really really old word for ‘above/superior’, i.e. something more precious than the common stone, a precious stone if you will.
Waaay later we figured out some of these are more or less the same thing and some aren’t the same thing at all. Because people naming things like order stuff got redefined. Unless a specific entity had a proper name. The Black Prince’s Ruby came into possession of the British in the 14th century. 300 years later it turns out to be a spinel as chemistry progressed.
We did the same with animals when we refined anatomical classification and finally switched to genetics. Old texts like Greek myths or the Bible refer to whales as fish. Cheetahs and cougars aren’t big cats anymore. But a variation of ‘fish buzzard/eagle/hawk’ is used in some languages while ospreys are very much their own family.
Well, what makes them different is their chemical makeup and the way they’re formed.
For example, sapphires and rubies are both made from a mineral called corundum. Sapphires are usually blue, but they can also come in other colors like pink, yellow, and green. If a corundum gem is red, it’s called a ruby.
So, basically, the only thing that makes a red corundum gem a ruby instead of a red sapphire is its name. It’s still made from the same mineral as a sapphire, but it’s just called something different because of its color.
The same goes for other gems too. Emeralds are made from a mineral called beryl and diamonds are made from carbon. They all have different colors and properties based on what they’re made of and how they’re formed.
Lots of similar answers yet nobody touching on history. By and large the type of gem IS determined by its appearance, originally.
* Sapphire comes from Sanskrit or a related language and means ‘dark stone’. The word is so old blue wasn’t its own color, yet.
* Ruby means ‘reddish’ in the original Latin.
* Emerald meant ‘shining/flashing precious stone’ in some Semitic language.
* Garnet is related to ‘pomegranate’, a fruit with translucent red flesh.
* Amber is named after the stones formed in whale guts.
* Aquamarine should be obvious.
* Lapis is Latin for ‘stone’ and lazuli is related to ‘sky blue’ in a bunch of languages, including their modern descendants like Portuguese (azul) though in most the L shifted to an R as in azzurro, azur, azure…
* Beryl and Topaz are named after the places they were found. Bit of a stretch on the meaning of ‘appearance’.
* Some exceptions: Diamond comes from Ancient Greek ‘unbreakable’, Amethyst from ‘not drunk’ because they thought it prevents intoxication and Opal is basically a really really old word for ‘above/superior’, i.e. something more precious than the common stone, a precious stone if you will.
Waaay later we figured out some of these are more or less the same thing and some aren’t the same thing at all. Because people naming things like order stuff got redefined. Unless a specific entity had a proper name. The Black Prince’s Ruby came into possession of the British in the 14th century. 300 years later it turns out to be a spinel as chemistry progressed.
We did the same with animals when we refined anatomical classification and finally switched to genetics. Old texts like Greek myths or the Bible refer to whales as fish. Cheetahs and cougars aren’t big cats anymore. But a variation of ‘fish buzzard/eagle/hawk’ is used in some languages while ospreys are very much their own family.
To add; long (centuries) before atomic theory and the modern understanding of chemistry relating to minerals, or the tools such as mass spectroscopy that can view the chemical makeup of as substance directly, people could tell these stones apart independent of their visual appearance. They tested for hardness by scratching other stones, they measured density and a special variant of density called specific gravity using scales and jars of water. All these properties are unique to each mineral type and were known long before the chemistry.
To add; long (centuries) before atomic theory and the modern understanding of chemistry relating to minerals, or the tools such as mass spectroscopy that can view the chemical makeup of as substance directly, people could tell these stones apart independent of their visual appearance. They tested for hardness by scratching other stones, they measured density and a special variant of density called specific gravity using scales and jars of water. All these properties are unique to each mineral type and were known long before the chemistry.
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