I'm pretty sure the Chemistry class I took included the methodology to answer this, but it was twenty years ago and I haven't used it since then.
What volume of everyday air would contain the equivalent number of carbon atoms (from the CO2) as would be contained in a one carat diamond? I've tried finding a wording that will work on Wolframalpha, but it keeps giving me a, "Standard computation time exceeded" message.
-----
Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.
Thats a bit more than the standard i know to work from also from about 10 years back. But have you tried working it from the other end? How much physical carbon does it take for that diamond? Then work your atomic scale from that.
Rajvik Wrote:How much physical carbon does it take for that diamond?
One carat, or 200 mg if you prefer metric.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
0.04% of the Earth's atmosphere is Carbon dioxide. Of this, 33% is actually carbon - the rest is oxygen. (There're traces like Carbon monoxide and petrol vapours, along with carbon particles themselves, but let's assume carbon dioxide alone)
So, that's about 0.0132%. Okay, Lets be generous and call it 135, to account for the rest.
So. For every kilogram of air we draw in, 0.0135% will be carbon we can use. That's about .135 of a gramme
We need 200 mg for one carat.... so about 1.5KG of atmosphere per carat, if I've done this right. But that seems very, very wrong somehow. Because that's about 1.5 cubic metres of air, or thereabouts. That really can't be right.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Cool, that made it work. According to Wolfram Alpha one cubic meter of air is 1.275kg. According to
Math! How much CO2 by weight in the atmosphere? carbon dioxide is 0.0582% of the
mass of air. Asking Wolfram Alpha for the mass of carbon and oxygen suggests the carbon is roughly 27.2% of the mass of a CO2 molecule.
So, the CO2 content of a cubic meter of air is 0.074205 kg, of which the carbon is 0.02018376 kg, or 20 grams... Okay, if that math is right then assuming you could suck up 100% of the carbon you'd get enough carbon for 100 carats of diamond.
O.O;
Then again that was assuming a one hundred percent conversion, which even with handwavium is probably not going to be seen without careful work and major quirks. Still... Did I get that math right?
This all started with my wondering how much air J. Random Character would need to shove through a device intended to scrub CO2 out of the air; and as a happy side effect give them something salable to pay for their benevolent action to end global warming (as if one machine would be likely to make a noticeable dent in global CO2).
My first thought was carbon fiber. It actually took a bit to remember that diamond was simply a crystalline form of carbon. At which point I got the image in my head of police raiding a lab over suspicion of unlicensed experimentation with handwavium, spotting a big mass of machinery and wondering what it is and why it's hooked up to the ventilation ducts, and most of all why are they hearing a 'tink!' sound every few seconds.
And wouldn't a certain cartel really love this guy.
-----
Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.
Perhaps a variation on this process is how Venusian diamond is made?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
LilFluff, I doubt the cartel would care too much about industrial diamonds. (At least, I hope that's the case.)
Bob, that works for me. That also makes the picture window at Meg's on Stellvia the single most expensive part of the station, even at industrial-diamond prices.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
They don't. All that matters to them is that the diamond is marked as being artificial. De Beers specifically market 'natural' diamonds as being superior....
There's no law mandating you have to go through De Beers anyway, anyway. It's a private company with a lot of marketing pull, but not the only way to market. And if you're making it by the ton you can sure as hell undercut nearly everyone. I mean, it's cheap enough stuff to build cities out of.
It's one way to get Carbon dioxide out of the Venusian atmosphere anyway.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?