Everyone knows gold purity is rated in Karats (also spelt Carats), but do you know what each Karat breaks down to in terms of pure gold? Well, here it is...

Each karat of gold represents 4.167% gold content with 24 karats at 100% gold.  You can see where the 4.1666% comes from by taking 100% / 24 karats = 4.16666666....%.  So all other karats are calculated from that.  Here is a convenient chart:

24 karat gold = 100.0% gold
0.00% other alloy
23 karat gold =
95.83% gold 4.17% other alloy
22 karat gold =
91.67% gold 8.33% other alloy
21 karat gold =
87.50% gold 12.50% other alloy
20 karat gold =
83.33% gold 16.67% other alloy
19 karat gold =
79.17% gold 20.83% other alloy
18 karat gold =
75.00% gold 25.00% other alloy
17 karat gold =
70.83% gold 29.17% other alloy
16 karat gold =
66.67% gold 33.33% other alloy
15 karat gold =
62.50% gold 37.50% other alloy
14 karat gold =
58.33% gold 41.67% other alloy
13 karat gold =
54.17% gold 45.83% other alloy
12 karat gold =
50.00% gold 50.00% other alloy
11 karat gold =
45.83% gold 54.17% other alloy
10 karat gold =
41.67% gold 58.33% other alloy
9 karat gold =
37.50% gold 62.50% other alloy
8 karat gold =
33.33% gold 66.67% other alloy
7 karat gold =
29.17% gold 70.83% other alloy
6 karat gold =
25.00% gold 75.00% other alloy
5 karat gold =
20.83% gold 79.17% other alloy
4 karat gold =
16.67% gold 83.33% other alloy
3 karat gold =
12.50% gold 87.50% other alloy
2 karat gold =
8.333% gold 91.667% other alloy
1 karat gold =
4.167% gold 95.833% other alloy

 

If you're interested in even more detail check out this wikipedia article on the subject.

 

 

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