Scatter Brained

DIAMONDS
Strategy 1:
 Find a nonessential pane of glass. If your so-called 
diamond cuts the glass, there’s a fair chance you’ve located the 
real deal. Unfortunately, a lot of good fakes 
also
 cut glass. So 
for extra security you should probably move on to . . .
Strategy 2:
 Flip your stone upside down and place it over a 
newspaper. If, looking through the diamond, you can read 
the news, we regret to inform you that your diamond is fake. 
If, on the other hand, the newsprint is unreadable, you’re ap-
proaching verifi able diamondity.
Strategy 3:
  Diamonds  disperse  heat  near  instantaneously; 
fakes generally don’t. You can test the speed of heat dispersal 
in a stone using a lot of complicated sensors and a tiny heat 
source—or you can just breathe on it. Use your hottest breath 
to fog up the stone. If it stayed fogged for a couple seconds, 
you’ve got a fake. If it doesn’t fog up, you’re money.
Strategy 4:
 Th
  e surest way to check the authenticity of a dia-
mond is to put it under ultraviolet light. If you do not have a 
black light of your own, we suggest going on Mr. Toad’s Wild 
Ride at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Th
 ere’s plenty of 
UV light, and the ride isn’t all that wild—which gives you 
plenty  of  time  to  examine  your  stone.  Most  diamonds  glow 
blue under ultraviolet light (although strong fl uorescence actu-
ally lowers the value of a diamond). Ninety-nine percent of 
fakes don’t.