Confused about 10K, 14K, 18K, etc.? Check out this short video.
What does the “karat” in gold mean?
With your loop, what are we looking for on gold jewelry to let you know it’s gold? Well, first let’s talk about what does karat mean when it comes to gold.
Let’s go back to grade school fractions. When it comes to gold, the denominator is 24. So if you think about 24 karat gold, we all know that is pure gold. That would be 24 divided by 24 gives you one hundred percent.
So, with 10 karat gold, what do you do? You divide 10 by the denominator 24 and that gives you 0.417 or 41.7% gold. 14 karat gold is 14 divided by 24, which is 0.585 or 58.5% gold. 18 karat gold is 0.75, 75% gold or 750 parts per thousand gold. If you know anybody that’s from India, Indian gold is usually 22 karat and has a very yellow look to it. If you divide 22 by 24, you get 0.917. So Indian gold is close to 92% gold.
As you can see, the higher the karat, the higher the percentage of gold in that item.