The Most noble of all

Mar 11

Above: (Crystalized native gold. Colorado Quartz Mine, Mariposa Co., California, USA.
3 x 1.75 x .25 inches (7.6 x 4.4 x .6 cm). Estimate: $30,000 - $40,000.
Photo Heritage Auctions)

Some facts on Gold... because I love science and facts and its always good to learn new things! 💛

So, what is this stuff anyway? What really is this shiny ancient solid mineral substance that connects the gap between myth and science? It is the 79th element in the periodic table (Au), and is a noble metal. In its purest form, it is relatively unreactive and resists degradation by air, moisture, or acidic conditions. The element symbol for gold is Au. The symbol comes from the old Latin name for gold, aurum, which means "shining dawn" or "glow of sunrise" and in its most natural purest form is the only element which 'naturally' exhibits a golden reddish hue not derived from a chemical change.

The question of where elements like gold come from has been around for a long time. Though many scientists long argued that supernova explosions were the source, there is now evidence that supernovas aren’t necessary! According to scientists and astronomers of the Harvard Astronomy Department, neutron star collisions produce all elements heavier than iron, such as platinum, palladium, mercury, lead and gold. They do it efficiently enough that they can account for all the gold that has been produced in the universe and many extremely large metiorites floating in space are filled with gold!

Gold has a melting point of 1,947.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1,064.18 degrees C) and a boiling point of 5,162 degrees F (2,850 degrees C). It has been mined around the world, and gold has been found on every continent except Antarctica!

Aside from its monetary, symbolic and decorative uses, it is used in electronics, electrical wiring, dentistry, medicine, radiation shielding, and even to color glass. It is used to coat astronaut helmets and microscopes and even to repair broken items like china vases. It is heavy and dense, but is also colourless, tasteless and pure 24k gold is non toxic and can be ingested and is frequently used in champagne and for embelishing desserts.

The rarest and most valuable form of gold is gold crystals. These can be worth as much as times as much as 100 times the price of gold bullion, and the price for nuggets is about 10 times that of bullion. And the value of crystals and nuggets does not fluctuate the way the price of gold bullion does!

Gold is the most malleable element. Malleability is a measure of how easily a material can be hammered into thin sheets. A single ounce of gold can be beaten out into a sheet that is 300 square feet. A sheet of gold can be made thin enough to be transparent. Gold is also extremely ductile. A single ounce of gold (about 28 grams) can be stretched into a gold thread 5 miles (8 kilometers) long and can even be used as embroidery thread!

These are just a few of the many wonderful facts to learn about gold!

(Reference:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/all-the-gold-in-the-universe-could-come-from-the-collisions-of-neutron-stars-13474145/