Q 01/05

Garnet's name is usually traced to the medieval Latin name of which fruit?

A) Cranberry

B) Pomegranate

C) Blood orange

D) Red currant

Answer · why

B) Pomegranate

Pomegranate is the usual explanation: the medieval Latin granatus is thought to recall the fruit's red seeds, which small garnet crystals resemble. Th...

Q 02/05

Prospectors follow trails of unusual garnets to find deposits of which precious gem?

A) Diamonds

B) Emeralds

C) Rubies

D) Sapphires

Answer · why

A) Diamonds

Diamonds ride to the surface in volcanic pipes beside far more numerous garnets, so geologists track the garnets back to the pipe. Some Canadian pipes...

Q 03/05

Which everyday workshop abrasive is still sold with a reddish cutting grit of crushed garnet?

A) Steel wool

B) Emery cloth

C) Sandpaper

D) Pumice powder

Answer · why

C) Sandpaper

Sandpaper made with garnet keeps cutting because the grains fracture as you sand, exposing fresh sharp edges. Cabinetmakers favour it for finishing ba...

Q 04/05

Which jeweller's designs made green demantoid garnets popular in Russia before the 1917 revolution?

A) Lalique

B) Cartier

C) Boucheron

D) Fabergé

Answer · why

D) Fabergé

Fabergé set the brilliant green stones in jewellery for Russia's elite, but after the revolution they fell out of style in the austere Soviet years.

Q 05/05

Garnets come in nearly every colour, but which is the rarest, first reported only in the 1990s?

A) Orange

B) Blue

C) Green

D) Yellow

Answer · why

B) Blue

Blue garnets turned up in the late 1990s at Bekily in Madagascar, and they shift towards purple under a warm lamp.