properties of Stormlight

[NightFrost]

So has anyone thought about this. In the stormlight archive whenever gemstones are mentioned they are usually round.  My question is does round gems hold more storm light than say a flat gem. Is stormlight attracted to its self or does it spread equally though its container. What happens if the gem breaks does the light leave the gem or does it redistribute itself. My theory is the former. Please tell me what you think.

[Eki]

The cut affects how much leaks out (better cut means less spillage, whatever "better cut" means), but not how much can be stored, iirc. Are the gemstones usually round though? Spheres are, but they are glass, with a gemstone in the middle. I always pictured the smaller denominations as, well, chips. But it's possible that "better cut" means "more spherical", I guess.

I think the stormlight is distributed within the whole gem, and if it breaks, the pieces just keep whatever stormlight they already have. Obviously, since the cut would be worse, the stormlight would leak pretty quickly.

[Djarskublar he/him]

Ninja'd! Yeah spheres are gems suspended in glass. The glass isn't even spherical, it's compressed into an ovoid shape to make them not till away. We don't really know anything about the cuts, but my guess is that the closer the cut gets to making the gem the shape its natural lattice would make it is the perfect cut.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

1 hour ago, Djarskublar said:

We don't really know anything about the cuts, but my guess is that the closer the cut gets to making the gem the shape its natural lattice would make it is the perfect cut.

I'm going to ignore how much this reminds me of the Gem-cutter in Infinity Blade 3 and walk away.

But yea, like they said: gem is suspended in a glass sphere that has a flat portion so they don't roll too far. The "better the cut" is every detail we know about it. I imagine the Stormlight works like Investiture in Hemalurgic Spikes: permeates the whole thing, splits into the pieces if broken, etc..

[Spoolofwhool]

A well-cut gem is not necessarily spherical I think. Gems are usually cut along natural faultlines in the stone. As such, I imagine a well-cut gem for holding stormlight would just need to be cut along its faults. As for cutting a gem full of stormlight, I think stormlight is equally dispersed in a gem and cutting it will release a small piece of the stormlight as leakage, and the rest will be divided proportionally to the sizes of the pieces. 

[1stBondsmith he/him]

I read recently that a fabrial's powers were directly tied to the cut and type of stone. That the pattern of light that shines from it directly effects the power. It would seem to me that a money chip would also be most effective at holding stormlight if it was cut a certain way. The worse the cut, the less stormlight it would hold (or hold it for a shorter period of time?). This would also be effected by the lattice of the stone chosen.

[+hwiles]

My understanding of why cut gems hold stormlight better is that the facets of a cut gem just reflect the stormlight back in on itself, resulting in internal reflection and slowing of the rate at which the investiture bleeds away.  This is a real phenomenon with light and gemstones in real life.  Real light is just a lot less sticky than stormlight.

Anyone who has shopped for an engagement ring will have experienced a jeweler parading many different stones past their eyes of varying levels of cut-quality.  Stones that are cut more perfectly (ie: the shape and spacing of their facets is more mathematically perfect and ideal for bouncing light around) catch and throw light more brilliantly.  It's not always easy to predict what types of facet spacing and size will result in the most reflection; the process of determining this is more guess-and-check than rigorous theorizing as far as I'm aware, and wildly different cuts can produce largely the same effect; relatively slight deviations can also ruin the quality and value of a gem by causing it to look dull and hazy.  @NightFrost If you're interested in predicting what styles of cut would hold light the best, I'd posit that the cuts which exist in real life that cause the most internal reflection (ie: shine the most brilliantly in direct light) would be a good place to start.  So basically...any jeweler, or most people actively researching engagement rings can help you out...  Google might also help...