Cubic Zirconia is a mineral that has been created in order to simulate the look and feel of diamond. There are a number of different reasons as to why the diamond has been simulated by the creation of cubic zirconia; the main point being that it is cheaper to get cubic zirconia synthesized than to dig up diamond and in most cases you will find it almost impossible to tell the difference. In fact, only the experts can tell the difference between cubic zirconia and diamond but for the people like you and me that have trouble with these things, here are some things you can look for in order to tell the difference. Dispersion Whenever you have light that is making its way into a clear surface that can act like a prism, you are going to have that light scattered in a number of different directions. If you look at a multi-faceted prism then you can see a sort of "light fire" in the actual prism itself if you look at it from a number of different angles. This is known as dispersion and the dispersive power in cubic zirconia is greater than that of diamond, so if you are aware of this effect in diamond, if you see more of it than you would expect you can guess that you are then dealing with cubic zirconia. Hardness Hardness is of course the thing that most people would be thinking about right off the bat because even people that aren't scientists know right away or at least tend to know right away that diamond is one of the hardest substances on Earth. The hardness factor is measured by Mohs scale of hardness and indeed Diamond's 10 on that logarithmic scale is compared to around 9 for cubic zirconia. Weight In addition to that, weight is also a big issue. The average cubic zirconia piece tends to weight almost twice as much as the average piece of diamond that would be the same size. Therefore, if the diamond you are holding feels heavier than you would expect, chances are that once again you are dealing with cubic zirconia. Flaws The concept of the flawless diamond is almost a myth. Most diamonds have some sort of defect; either a feather, crystal, face remnant or anything else. If you are already suspicious of something and you see also that it happens to be flawless, once again you might be dealing with cubic zirconia. Price Diamonds are extracted from the Earth through nowadays very expensive procedures. On the other hand, cubic zirconia pieces are manufactured and synthesized in private in cheaper procedures. What you find eventually is that the price of the cubic zirconia pieces tends to be lower than diamond pieces so if you are looking at a diamond that is very cheap, you might want to take it through these other tests to make sure it is indeed a diamond. Once you are suspicious of it, you can use these steps to tell the difference.
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