Interesting Facts About Gold
Why has gold become so valuable among all metals on our planet? The reason lies in a series of events that have elevated its worth.
In reality, gold is not the rarest metal on Earth. However, this doesn't mean that gold is very common - it actually occurs less frequently than you might think. There are elements that are extremely rare because only a handful of them can be found on the entire planet. Therefore, in this sense, gold isn't particularly intriguing.
So, what's causing all the excitement surrounding this metal? In truth, it's gold's practicality that has made it a very convenient currency.
It's not very common, but neither is it very rare. It's non-radioactive and non-toxic. If we were to list all the available substances, most of them would be unsuitable due to their radioactivity or toxicity. Among the remaining ones (like silver, platinum, etc.), gold stands out because of its yellowish hue. All other metals are more grayish, which makes gold distinct.
Gold became a popular currency, and although it's no longer widely used as such (at least in most countries), it has retained its value precisely because it doesn't react with other elements and thus doesn't tarnish. So, here are some interesting facts about gold that you may not have known.
Interesting Facts About Gold
● In Dubai, there are ATMs that dispense gold bars. Two of these ATMs are located on the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. Covered in a 24-carat gold leaf, the machine dispenses bars in one ounce, ten grams, five grams, and one gram sizes. A built-in computer tracks gold prices and updates them every 10 minutes.
● Sailors often wore gold earrings so that if they drowned and washed ashore, the earrings could pay for a proper Christian burial.
● A significant amount of gold found in Earth's crust arrived here through meteorite impacts.
● Ice cream tasters use gold spoons to avoid the metallic aftertaste that occurs with regular spoons.
● Aluminum was once the most valuable metal on Earth. The rich dined with aluminum cutlery while the poor used gold.
● A reward was offered for the head of Roman politician Gaius Sempronius Gracchus equal to its weight in gold. The head was delivered, but the reward was not paid because the politician's murderer filled his head with lead.
● Chinese prisoners are forced to mine gold in the game "World of Warcraft." According to some sources, there are nearly 100,000 virtual gold farmers nationwide.
● LEGO used to award its employees a 25.65-gram gold ingot for 25 years of continuous service.
● Gold is often brought to the Earth's surface by groundwater during earthquakes due to the pressure in its depths.
● You can extract more gold from 1 ton of old mobile phones than from 1 ton of gold ore.
● Indian households own approximately 11% of the world's gold. This is more gold than the USA, Switzerland, Germany, and the International Monetary Fund combined!
● To melt naturally soft gold, it needs to be heated to 1065°C. Many harder metals have lower melting temperatures.
● Gold's malleability is unmatched. One ounce (less than 30 grams) of metal can be stretched into an 80-kilometer-long thread that's thinner than a human hair. Natural gold thread is used in embroidery and weaving.
● Gold has a high density but not the highest. A kilogram of gold is a sphere just over 4.5 cm in diameter.
● The volume of gold that fits into a matchbox is enough to gild the surface of a tennis court. Theoretically, 1 gram of pure gold can be rolled into semi-transparent foil covering one square kilometer.
● A high-carat gold ring, worn throughout a lifetime, becomes twice as thin after several decades.
● Our planet is rich in gold, but finding it is challenging because the metal is rare. According to unconfirmed reports, up to 80% of Earth's gold is concentrated in the planet's metallic core. Meanwhile, according to space research, just one asteroid, Eros, contains more gold than our entire planet.
● The first metals extracted by humans were gold and copper over seven thousand years ago. However, three-quarters of all gold ever mined by humanity has been extracted in the last 105 years. For comparison: today's daily iron ore mining equals the total gold mining done throughout human history.
● A significant portion of gold is extracted by miners from alluvial deposits, which are tiny grains of gold sand. Gold nuggets can sometimes be quite large. Over a century ago in Australia, a nugget weighing 72 kg was extracted from ground just 5 cm deep.
● Half of the world's gold is mined in South Africa.
● Gold in South Africa is extracted from mines that are three and a half kilometers deep. The annual extraction of metal amounts to 500 tons, but to free gold from ore, about 700 million tons of rock are crushed and sifted. Each ounce of gold requires forty person-hours of hard labor, one and a half hundred liters of water, a huge amount of electricity, and chemical reagents.
● Approximately 150-200 thousand tons of gold have been mined throughout human history - an insignificant amount compared to the estimated amount of this metal dissolved in the ocean. By the most modest estimates, no less than 6 million tons of gold are dissolved in saline water.
● Humanity has been able to create artificial gold from lead and mercury for several decades. However, nuclear fusion technology is complex, expensive, and energy-intensive. Therefore, even today, gold mining is conducted in the old-fashioned way. However, scientists occasionally make breakthroughs in gold mining. In 2011, attempts were made to extract gold from corn - the only plant that effectively extracts this metal from the soil. One ton of corn ash contains up to 60 grams of pure gold.
● For ancient Egyptians, gold was considered the property of the gods. Therefore, only the pharaoh (considered a relative of the gods), his family, and chief priests were allowed to use gold items. Even jewelers who created gold jewelry were imbued with the glow of divine glory. However, slaves who mined gold received no divine blessings.
● The price of gold has always been consistently high, but in the spring of 2008, the noble metal experienced a real surge in value. For the first time in human history, the price of gold exceeded a thousand dollars per ounce (28.35 grams).
● Today, gold and other precious metals are increasingly used for wealth accumulation, which unequivocally indicates a deep economic crisis on the planet. Therefore, it's not surprising that since 2008, the demand for bank gold, silver, and platinum has sharply increased and has not fallen to this day.
● Jewelry consists of no less than one-sixth reused metal. This means that some of the gold used in your rings and bracelets was mined by the Incas, ancient Greeks, or even ancient Egyptians.
● Gold is a full-fledged space material. Gold foil is used to protect spacecraft from overheating. A thin layer of gold covers light filters on cosmonaut helmets. Gold protects human sight from bright sunlight better than any other material!
● Gold bars are usually cast in arbitrary shapes. However, resourceful Swiss invented casting gold in the form of everyone's favorite chocolate. Each of the gold nuggets in such a mold weighs one gram. Breaking it off the mass is not difficult. Similarly, the Swiss cast silver, platinum, and palladium.
These facts illustrate the unique and fascinating properties of gold, making it not only valuable but also culturally significant throughout human history.
