Wedding ring wearoff?

Question

hi i know wedding rings wear off a bit... well a bit too much if ur a heavy worker (with hands)

my concern is that the value goes down substantially if the gold wears off right?

well..... what sorta shape of ring wears off faster? a dome shape or a straight shape? (refer pic)

its physics right? one shape should be prone to wear off than the otehr....... i dunno which one though..

pls help..

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f49/nishpere/ringshapes.jpg

<a href="http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/... target="_blank"><img src="http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f... border="0" alt="ring shapes"></a>

Answer 1

Corners and edges take more force than smooth rounded shapes, partly because they &#039;catch&#039; on things, and partly because they present a smaller area to an obstacle, leading to a larger pressure per square inch, and so they would tend to wear more.

But precious metals are not very hard, and so, when they are struck in any way, they are more likely to distort than wear.

Still, they do wear over time. A smooth curved shape will also wear, but it will do it evenly - so you will not notice it as much - and it will not have more vulnerable edges.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Wear of materials subjected to abrasion is actually the dissociation of atoms from the material due to the energy produced by friction.

When the bonding energy to its adjoining atoms is exceeded, the atom is dissociated from the material. Therefore when more atoms are involved in the abrasion, the energy is distributed more widely and the energy imparted to each atom is less. The chances of exceeding the bonding energy between atoms is therefore reduced hence less atoms may be dissociated.

A dome shaped ring would have a point contact at the crown hence less atoms would be involved in the event of abrasion, while a flat surfaced (cylindrical) ring has line contact hence more atoms are involved in the event of abrasion.

A dome shaped ring would therefore wear faster.