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BroodPlatypus t1_j2yppn7 wrote

Did you know a solid piece of gold the size of a deck of cards can be made so thin that it covers the square footage of a tennis court?

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ShatterBong t1_j2yqelo wrote

They can get it down to 250 atoms thickness

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elcheapodeluxe t1_j2z11f1 wrote

I actually thought it could be made a lot thinner. Is that a full deck of cards?

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BroodPlatypus t1_j2z1rh6 wrote

Looked it up and the tennis court size reference was starting from a matchbox which might be smaller? Idk

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Hapankaali t1_j31gq9n wrote

Let's do a back-of-the-envelope calculation. A mole of gold has a mass of about 197 grams, in the ballpark of our hypothetical deck of cards. The lattice constant of gold is about 0.4 nm (in a fcc structure, but let's assume simple cubic for simplicity). A commenter mentions a thickness of 2 atoms, but that's a very fancy setup, so let's go for something that's feasible with modern techniques currently applied in industry: 10 atoms. Arrange our tenth of a mole into a square and we get sides of a bit more than 2*10^(11) atoms, corresponding to a square with 80m sides. Actually not that far off from a tennis court - I would have guessed it would be bigger.

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Varnigma t1_j2zne7n wrote

I recall one that went something like “you could take a 1cm cube and turn it into a thread a mile long”.

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MarioInOntario t1_j2zse10 wrote

Which means it can be easily stretched to make fine electronic cables used in medical equipment.

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fredsam25 t1_j2zujn8 wrote

That would be a waste of gold.

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Afrenc3931 t1_j2zyprx wrote

Not at all, gold leaf has all kinds of applications. For example, it’s the best material for spacewalk sun visors.

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fredsam25 t1_j302kjq wrote

But spread out on a tennis court, it's pretty wasteful.

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WarrenPuff_It t1_j30ah9e wrote

You can still use it after.

Gold is easily recycled

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fredsam25 t1_j30boh1 wrote

Good luck scraping gold leaf off a tennis court.

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WarrenPuff_It t1_j30cta8 wrote

Do you understand how easy it is to recycle gold off electronics? What makes you think a tennis court would be a difficult surface to separate gold from?

You dont need to remove it from the tennis court, you can dig up the whole tennis court and dissolve the gold in a solution and reconstitute it as a purified ball of gold. You can just shovel the whole thing into a smelter and melt it off. Everything not gold will float to the top.

This is a non-event, if people are willing to dig a mile underground through quartz and granite using explosives and mercury baths to get gold dust out of the ground, why do you think a tennis court will be any type of obstacle? It would be picked clean that day.

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fredsam25 t1_j30df40 wrote

The wind would blow half of it away.

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WarrenPuff_It t1_j30e4us wrote

People pan for gold dust in the streets of NYC. You are underestimating how quickly that wafer thin gold will be pulled up by whoever is working it.

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fredsam25 t1_j30fb5l wrote

You're better off not putting it on a tennis court in the first place.

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Forgot-My-Name_again t1_j30bz8r wrote

You just burn the court and separate the gold from the ash.

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fredsam25 t1_j30dmw1 wrote

It would just blow away with the smoke.

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Forgot-My-Name_again t1_j31s7cz wrote

Nah, gold dust is too heavy. It's a common separation/reclamation technique for gold in old flumes or carpets or other materials in workspaces where fine gold particles were common.

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fredsam25 t1_j31xcil wrote

You're thinking of gold particles. Ultra thin gold flakes are easily carried away in the wind. The ratio of surface area to weight mean that they experience a lot of drag relative to gravity.

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Forgot-My-Name_again t1_j31xn59 wrote

And you don't think a fire will alter the flair structure.

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fredsam25 t1_j31y4af wrote

The melting point of gold is around 2000F. No way you are getting anywhere close to that in a open tennis court fire. The gold will not be effected by the fire except to be torn apart by the plumes of smoke that would also carry it away.

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PegaLaMega t1_j32p8qx wrote

That's nothing. You should see what my wife can do.

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soulsurfer3 t1_j3048an wrote

“mined” is the key term here. there’s been tons of river gold and in areas like australia when they were first colonized, there were nuggets in some areas just laying on the ground.

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cybermage t1_j30ih3g wrote

I was thinking that too. Lots of river gold indeed.

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soulsurfer3 t1_j30k3y8 wrote

That was the entire california and alaska gold rushes

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Nyghtshayde t1_j31brtt wrote

Well in Victoria, which was the centre of the gold rush, there's still at much gold in the ground as was removed over the past 130 years.

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Cetun t1_j33kbst wrote

The amount in our crust is actually relatively small amount, even if you were to mine at all. It's estimated that the amount we can reasonably extract from the crust would amount to a solid cube 100m by 100m thick. Contrast that with how much gold is currently in the Earth's core, since heavier elements sink. If you were to take all the gold in the Earth's core and spread it evenly across the surface of the earth it would cover the entire surface of earth in a sold 1m of gold.

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soulsurfer3 t1_j33lasc wrote

Damn. That’s crazy. I know that it’s comes up through magma and volcanic activity. But had no idea how much was in the core. And also how much that is i. the crust that will never be mined. Makes you think that the future for mining rare elements may really be in asteroids.

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the_moosey_fate t1_j2yonn9 wrote

It’s probably true, but I literally can’t believe it.

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Zealousideal-Web5346 t1_j2zg31s wrote

The messed part is the only real use for gold only came around 50 years ago when we started making computer parts since it doesnt corrode

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TgagHammerstrike t1_j2zr6mg wrote

Not necessarily; gold has been used in dentistry for hundreds of years.

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krectus t1_j2zscy5 wrote

It’s for this reason it was used for coins and other items before that so I’m not sure “real use” is accurate here.

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Forgot-My-Name_again t1_j30cmco wrote

Right, and gold leafing on books actually protects the pages, makes handling easier, and prevents paper cuts. I'd call that a real use. Gold fillings, a material that can actually be cold impact welded in an environment as bad as a human mouth and wing break down after installation. Gold mending of materials. The low melting point makes it easy to work, ideal for repairs.

All of those are genuine historic uses of gold that aren't just GOLD PRETTY. I mean, the attractive end result sure doesn't hurt, but the properties of the gold itself are the reason to choose it.

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Zealousideal-Web5346 t1_j2zwxpz wrote

NERD ALERT!

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Zealousideal-Web5346 t1_j3014lc wrote

Oh boy. Shiny doesn't mean useful. Love the hate. Pour it on

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WarrenPuff_It t1_j30ap1v wrote

One of the main qualities of money is it needs to be durable, you daft mustard packet. Having your coins not rust makes them more durable than other metals.

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fulanomengano t1_j30eyvt wrote

Nope. It’s value in the past didn’t come from being shinny and pretty. Its physical and chemical properties like not being corroded, it’s usage in alloys and the fact that didn’t cause allergic or other reactions when in contact with skin is what made it valuable.

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LuKeNuKuM t1_j32fk0v wrote

Plus the fact it's hard to mine having a high stock to flow ratio. This makes it a good store of value over time. Unlike fiat currencies that no longer adhere to the gold standard and devalue over time because more is produced.

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zucksucksmyberg t1_j30xtu4 wrote

Funny though that prior to the discovery of vast silver in the New World, silver was rarer and more valuable than gold.

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FatQuack t1_j2zcx6o wrote

This may be true? An Olympic pool could hold 50,000 tons of gold and the estimated amount of gold ever mined is 200,000 to 250,000 tons.

I'm not sure where that estimate comes from, tho.

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Shitinmymouthmum t1_j2zdked wrote

Probably the association of goldsmith's or some shit.

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FatQuack t1_j2zgod4 wrote

If they said the amount of gold mined last year I would 100% accept that but I don't know how they estimate all the gold mined by ancient people like the Egyptians or the Inca.

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zmz2 t1_j2zpx0x wrote

The mining rate increased so much during the Industrial Revolution that the total gold mined in the millennia before probably fits in the margin of error for the estimate

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BiagioLargo t1_j2z6uf9 wrote

I honestly dont know if i feel that's surprisingly low or about what I expected tbh.

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krectus t1_j2zsi8g wrote

Also wondering why this is an interesting amount.

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zucksucksmyberg t1_j30xfky wrote

For starters that amount of gold is relatively smaller to the current value of the world economy and a lot of people wants to reconstitute the Gold Standard.

Not to mention a portion of the total gold "mined" could be missing since people do tend to bury their treasure way back then.

So in actuality, there is less gold peesent.

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burplesscucumber t1_j2yuv9o wrote

you can't swim in gold

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argvdx t1_j2zlu4t wrote

You can do it! at least one time!

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WarrenPuff_It t1_j30auv6 wrote

Yes you can. Will hurt like a bitch but gold can be melted down or dissolved, and you can swim in that for as long as your flesh holds up.

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Forgot-My-Name_again t1_j30cu0f wrote

Aqua regia! Wonder how long a person could survive. Can't imagine it's measured in anything longer than minutes.

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WarrenPuff_It t1_j30d15v wrote

Yeah a couple minutes tops would be my guess. Horrible experience but you'd be swimming in gold lol

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SandysBurner t1_j2zwv8o wrote

And Scrooge McDuck's got one of them.

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dvoecks t1_j30gpuz wrote

TIL that all the gold in California is in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills, in somebody else's name.

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coldfarm t1_j33ux3d wrote

I am old enough to remember when the Gatlin Brothers performed that live on TV and changed it to “in Kenny Rogers’ name”.

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JuzoItami t1_j2zp0qr wrote

It seems like that would really suck for the people in those areas who want to go swimming.

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DaddyMachismos t1_j33ako0 wrote

What I'm hearing is "the world can only support 3 Scrooge McDucks"

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ParadiseValleyFiend t1_j2zstvz wrote

I think someone did this measurement with platinum too. I remember hearing that it would all fit into a medium-sized room, could be wrong though.

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Bain_PD t1_j30b8b2 wrote

Wait til/if we figure out how to mine an asteroid.

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Qzy t1_j33rjs2 wrote

I'll hold my breath.

... are we close ? How about now?

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New_Tortoise t1_j30bwof wrote

The size of an Olympic Swimming Pool is about 85,000,000 fluid ounces.

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skinnergy t1_j30l0ib wrote

Three solid gold Olympic size swimming pool size ingots? That seems like quite a bit of gold.

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zucksucksmyberg t1_j30wsa3 wrote

Dont tell that to my countrymen. They believe that the Marcoses are lending the US gold with 1k USD interest per hour.

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halbo2 t1_j30yx79 wrote

I first saw this stat in a National Geographic article, about gold, from about 2012. At the time it was “two” swimming pools, not three .

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Acornelectron t1_j33bixz wrote

That’s nothing. All sand mined could fill at least four olympic size swimming pools!

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Gingersnapp3d t1_j315ehn wrote

Someone explain to me how Scrooge McDuck ended up with an entire pools worth of gold coins then

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Baby_Tom_Cruise t1_j31ukpr wrote

So scrooge mcduck had all the gold in the world!

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DeLerius_Lee t1_j335uxu wrote

This puts Scrooge McDuck into a new perspective.

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Zealousideal-Web5346 t1_j30b0fe wrote

Dude i get excited when i find a dollar bill from the 60s money has and always will be reprinted. Eat it dick fucker

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fredsam25 t1_j2zutbt wrote

No it couldn't. First, it would be impossible to collect it all. Even if you did manage to get it, you'd have to melt it to make it fit. Even if you managed to melt it and make it fit, the Olympic swimming pool would collapse because it can't support the weight.

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