Gold has generated a lot of evil.
When someone tries to describe the kindness and generosity of a man about him often say “heart of gold”. This expression refers to gold in the sense of the value of his good character, and this is just one of many examples in which gold is used to impersonate the element of grandeur.
You probably noticed that the winners of the Olympic games are awarded with gold medals (although those are mainly made of silver and only 1% covered by gold), figurines of “Oscar” covered with gold, as well as the Grammy awards, a Golden globe and the medal of the Nobel prize. But why do we love and value so much gold, while on Earth there are hundreds of other metals?
From the earliest times gold was considered the jewel that is a must have. And this thirst for gold is not specific to any one or more cultures. It is characteristic of all cultures around the globe, separated by vast distances, which suggests that a high value was given to gold before appeared first historical record about the spread of ancient civilizations. Of the 118 elements in the periodic table gold is the only thing that has always been used as currency.
Learn more about this mesmerizing noble metal, having become acquainted with 25 brilliant facts about gold that you will be amazed.
25. The word “gold” comes from the old English word “geolu,” meaning yellow.
24. Gold is marked with the symbol “Au” from the Latin name of gold, aurum which means “shining dawn” or “morning dawn”.
23. According to archaeological data, gold and copper were the first metals discovered by humans around 5000 years BC.
22. The first official record of ever discovered in the U.S. made about gold nugget weighing 17 pounds (of 7.71 kg) found in Labeause (Cabarrus), North Carolina. When in 1803, more gold was discovered in little meadow Creek (Little Meadow Creek), North Carolina, in the United States began the first “gold rush”.
21. Gold melts at a temperature of 1064,18°C and can conduct heat and electricity. And gold does not rust.
20. 24 carat gold is pure elemental gold. 18K gold is 75% pure gold and 25% impurities. 14k gold is 58.5 percent pure gold and 41.5% of impurities, 10 carat gold is 41.7% of pure gold and 58.3% of impurities.
The remaining part of the metal is usually silver, although it may consist of other metals or combinations of metals such as platinum, copper, palladium, zinc, Nickel, iron and cadmium.
19. The purity of gold is traditionally measured in British carats. The word “carat” comes from the Italian “carato” fruit of the carob tree, which was originally a unit of mass (0.2 g) by the ancient traders.
18. The name of the American football club “San Francisco forty Niners” (“San Francisco 49ers”) comes from the nickname of the gold miners (the”49ers” — “people of the 49th”), who came to San Francisco during the California gold rush in 1849.
17. The world’s largest stockpile of gold is in the vault of the Federal reserve Bank of new York, located underground. There is 25% of the world’s supply of gold (540.000 gold bars). Most of them belongs to foreign governments.
16. The world’s first vending machine for gold began work in may 2010. Located in an ultra luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi, the vending machine itself is covered in 24-carat gold.
15. The world’s largest gold bar weighs 250 kg.
14. Due to its rarity and extremely high values most of the gold found throughout history, is in circulation. It is estimated that nearly 70% of all gold in circulation was mined in the last 100 years.
13. The Greeks and the Jews began to practice alchemy in 300 year BC. Find out how to turn ordinary metals into gold reached their peak during the middle Ages and the Renaissance.
12. In Ancient Egypt, gold was considered the skin or flesh of the gods, particularly the Egyptian Sun God RA. Therefore, gold was unavailable to anyone else except for the pharaohs, and only later to priests and other members of the family of Pharaoh. The room in which were the tombs of the pharaohs were known as the “house of gold”.
11. In 1511 king Ferdinand of Spain uttered the immortal phrase: “Get gold humanely if possible, but if not — get under any threat.”
10. Gold in small portions is edible. In some Asian countries put gold in fruit, jelly snacks, coffee and tea. At least from 1500’s the Europeans began to add gold leaves to the liquor, such as, for example, “Goldwasser” (Danziger Goldwasser) or “Goldshlager” (Goldschläger). In addition, the world’s most expensive Burger is prepared with gold flakes.
9. The value of gold used as a standard for most currencies in the world. After the Second world war the United States created the Bretton Woods system, which established the value of the U.S. dollar is 1/35 of an ounce of gold (888,671 mg). The system ceased to operate in 1971, when there was enough gold to cover the value of all paper money being in circulation.
8. You never wondered why gold is so expensive? Gold is so rare metal that is in the world cast more steel in an hour than it was cast in gold in the history of mankind.
7. Despite its rarity, it is believed that more than 99% of the gold on our planet are still in the bowels of the Earth.
6. Pure gold is so soft that it can be formed by hand.
5. In the human body contains 0.2 milligrams of gold, primarily in the blood.
4. According to rough estimates, in the oceans is a total of 10 billion tons of gold. This is 25 tons of gold in every cubic mile of sea water (4,17 cubic km).
3. Gold is so malleable material that it can make a sewing thread. String of one ounce (28,35 grams) can be stretched to 50 miles (80,47 km).
2. Gold was discovered on every continent of our planet. Many scientists believe that it can also be found on Mars, mercury and Venus…
1. …And this is understandable when you consider that, according to astrophysics, almost all of the gold available on our planet is caught in earth’s crust along with meteorites, “bombardirovschiki” the Earth more than 200 million years after it formed.
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