Monday, July 1, 2013

Indestructible Gold

It is not always understood why is Gold also simply beautiful to look at. It is extremely malleable and pliable. A one-ounce piece of gold can be beaten down to 5 micrometers thick – that is 1/10 the diameter of a human hair – and laid out into 50 miles of wire. 

It can also be made so thin that it becomes a translucent sheet; in fact, astronaut’s visors are covered in a thin gold film to protect their eyes from glare. Gold also has anti-inflammatory and other medicinal properties. 

Ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iran and Iraq) were the first, at around 5000 BC (some sources indicate 4000 BC), to use gold for ornaments. The Egyptians would soon fall in love with the precious metal too. But gold was mostly used for personal adornment; the first gold coins for trade were issued by Egyptian pharaohs only at around 2700 BC. Large scale gold coinage for the monetary purpose was introduced in by King Croesus during his reign (560 – 546 BC) of Lydia. Croesus became one of the wealthiest persons ever. By firing neutrons into a nucleus to change an atom, gold can be produced from cheap metals. However, the nuclear process costs far more than mining gold. 

Source:interestingtopics.net

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