How many humans would it take to make a ring-sized diamond?

Factual Questions
1

Inspired by the other diamond thread, how many humans would this take? I don’t really know much about diamond sizes, but just assume the size that would fit in an average engagement ring. I guess they’d have to squeeze and heat the humans into a small block and cut it into a ring-acceptable shape. Any ideas?

2

The average human is about 18% carbon. You could make a bunch of diamonds out of the carbon in one human.

3

Yeah, diamonds aren’t super dense carbon. They are hard because of the arrangement of the carbon atoms. The heat and pressure just encourage the carbon to form the right bonds

4

Think of it in terms of conservation of mass. Since we’re not doing anything exotic like fission or fusion, which convert appreciable amounts of mass to energy or transmute elements, a gram of pure carbon soot or charcoal would become a gram of diamond.

A carat is 200 milligrams, IIRC, so if we use the figure above (The human body is 18% carbon), then 1.11 grams of “human” would make a one carat diamond. The literal answer to your question would be roughly 1/50,000 to 1/100,000 human/carat

However, I presume the 18% figure includes blood, other fluids and bone, which add up to a subtantial fraction of the body’s weight, but are fairly carbon-poor. Since few of us puree our humans, or toss them intact into a mega-diamond press, you should be able to make a 1-carat diamond with less than a gram of skin, muscle, organs etc.

Of course, most human males act as if a 1 carat diamond ring is equivalent to “a pound of flesh” (which may be true, but only because of the DeBeers cartel).

5

A diamond is a woman’s best friend. A dog is a man’s best friend. Therefore, one dog will make one diamond.

6

Faulty reasoning. Is the woman my wife who isn’t particularly fond of large diamonds or is she Elizabeth Taylor? Does the man have a lot of best friends who go 'coon hunting with him or is he an urban metrosexual with a Bichon Frise. Remember we’re here to stamp out ignorance… if possible with metal track cleats! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

7

Thanks for the replies. Now I just need to get my brother to agree to this…