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Asked by chickenjoe to Callum, Gina, Katie, Michelle, Sam on 19 Nov 2012.
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Sam Godfrey answered on 19 Nov 2012:
Hey Chicken Joe
Yes you can melt diamond but it’s not easy to do. If you heat it at very high temperatures it will actually burn, but if you heat it in a vacuum so there is no oxygen to allow it to burn, then it is possible. An answer I looked up says that the temperature would have to be more than 3000 degrees. I don’t think that it has been done this way. The other way you can do it is at very high pressure. Apparently it has been done at 10000 times the normal pressure of our atmosphere. Before I looked into this I had no idea that diamonds were that tough.
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Katie Howe answered on 19 Nov 2012:
Hey! As Sam said it is really difficult to melt diamonds – you need a lot of heat and pressure to provide enough energy.
The reason why diamonds are so tough is becuase they are made up of carbon atoms which are really tightly linked together. Because diamond is so hard this makes it really good for making cutting knives because it can cut through any metal without breaking.
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Callum Johnston answered on 19 Nov 2012:
Hey Chicken Joe,
Like the guys said, melting a diamond is very difficult. There are lots of other things that are better and are more fun to melt!
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Michelle Linterman answered on 19 Nov 2012:
Diamond is very hard to melt, to do so you’d have to put it in a vacuum (chamber with no air) and heat it up to about 4000 degrees!
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