How much explosive force would bo needed to break a diamond?

Question

Lets say the diamond is 1 carat

Answer 1

A small nitpicking point:  it is not the force on the diamond, it is the pressure.  The pressure is the force divided by the area over which it is applied.  

For example, a razor blade will cut something when a dull knife will not, even if the same force is applied to both.  The difference is that the area of contact with the sharp razor is much smaller than is the contact area of a dull knife.  Therefore, the pressure is much greater under the razor blade than under the dull knife.

Answer 2

I don't seem to think the answer above me is entirely truthful...Diamonds are used in (very expensive) drilling tools as they are known to be harder than titanium (the strongest plentiful metal in the world). They have extremely strong bonds between the particles.

However diamonds can be simply vaporised by just dropping into liquid oxygen, which breaks the covalent bonds between the different carbonated particles easily as slicing butter.

Answer 3

surprisingly diamonds are resistent to scratches, but they are very very brittle.  If you dropped a diamond it would shatter easily so to answer your question....not much at all....

the diamond would easily break along its natural faces and cleavagesd..

Answer 4

Diamonds actually fracture fairly easily.  They are impossible to scratch except with another diamond (and a synthetic material recently invented).  But they can break fairly easily.  Jewelers do it all the time with tiny chisels and small hammers.