The carat (ct) is a unit of mass equal to 200 mg, which is used for measuring gemstones and pearls.
The current definition, sometimes known as the metric carat, was adopted in 1907 at the Fourth General Conference on Weights and Measures, and soon afterwards in many countries around the world. The carat is divisible into 100 points of 2 mg. Other subdivisions, and slightly different mass values, have been used in the past in different locations.
A 1-carat (200 mg) brilliant diamond
Diamond-weighing kit, with weights labelled in grams and carats
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementary particles, theoretically with the same amount of matter, have nonetheless different masses. Mass in modern physics has multiple definitions which are conceptually distinct, but physically equivalent. Mass can be experimentally defined as a measure of the body's inertia, meaning the resistance to acceleration when a net force is applied. The object's mass also determines the strength of its gravitational attraction to other bodies.
A 2 kg (4.4 lb) cast iron weight used for balances
Depiction of early balance scales in the Papyrus of Hunefer (dated to the 19th dynasty, c. 1285 BCE). The scene shows Anubis weighing the heart of Hunefer.
Galileo Galilei (1636)
Distance traveled by a freely falling ball is proportional to the square of the elapsed time.