You might have seen jewellery advertisements talking about something called carats. But what are carats? A carat is the proportion of gold in an alloy. But why do we mix gold with other elements? Let us take a look.
Pure gold is very soft. It is not possible to make jewellery and other artefacts with pure gold as it is not hard enough. Gold in its pure form breaks easily. So, it is often mixed with copper, silver or other metals to make it easier to work with. Pure gold is always 24 carat. But, most of the jewellery that we wear is made of 22 carat gold. If there is a higher proportion of copper or silver, the gold may be 18, 14, or even 9 carat gold.
The cheapest jewellery will be made of 9 carat gold, and the most expensive, of 22 carat gold. The greater the amount of gold in the mixture, the more expensive it will be.
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