Tim the Enchanter wrote:
It is an excuse to sell chocolate, gift cards, and diamonds.
Jewelry commercials like to push the thought that diamonds are forever. In my chemistry classes, I like to point out that diamonds are not forever based upon the thermodynamics of carbon. They are formed under high temperature and high pressure conditions. Once they have been removed from those conditions, they are very slowly reverting back to the carbon form that they crystallized from. It takes millions and millions of years, but they will eventually become either coal or graphite on the surface of Earth.
My favorite Valentines Day chemistry video to show is the burning of a flawless diamond using a blow torch and liquid oxygen. The diamond “melts” away into carbon dioxide gas. DeBeers donated a imperfect diamond to make one of the videos for science education, likely as a tax write-off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzah-TE ... dlbg%3D%3D