Due to its easy processing and being found in nature, gold is the element that has attracted the most attention of mankind for centuries. It is a precious metal with an eye-catching shine due to its yellow colour. Gold is not affected by air and water, does not rust, does not become dull and does not tarnish. Since it is very soft in its pure form, it can be easily shaped. Because of all these features, gold has been one of the most valuable metals in history, as we mentioned at the beginning. For the first time in gold history, BC. It was used as money in sticks in Egypt in the 3200s. In the Americas, the oldest traces of gold date back to BC. It has been determined that it goes back to 2000 years.
According to the figures for 2021, the amount of gold obtained from the mines was recorded as approximately 205,000 tons of gold. Assuming an ounce price of $1,716 (£1,497), the value of 205,000 tons of gold is approximately $352 million. More than half of this 205,000 tons of gold is used in the central bank reserves of the countries, while the rest is used in the jewellery and electronics industry due to its conductivity and if you found that interesting check out these ten other facts…
Spare Change
The world’s largest gold coin as listed by the Guinness World Records is a one-tonne Australian Kangaroo. The colossal 99.99% pure gold coin has a diameter of 80 centimetres and is a massive 12 centimetres thick.
Continents
Gold has been found on every continent except Antarctica. It is estimated that worldwide, the total amount of gold mined in 2021 is 205,000 metric tons. This is surprisingly small when you consider that this would only fill 60 tractor trailers.
Food
Gold is a particularly non-reactive element and is not absorbed during the digestion process, so it is safe to eat. However, there are no nutritional or health benefits associated with its consumption.
Body
An average person’s body weighing 70 kilograms would contain a total mass of 0.2 milligrams of gold. The trace amount of Gold if turned into a solid cube of purified gold will make a cube of 0.22 millimetres in measurement.
Eucalyptus
Gold particles have been found around the soils of eucalyptus trees, but the researchers confirmed that the plants were taking in the element. Using the Australian synchrotron – a vast machine that uses X-rays to probe matter in remarkable detail – they found traces of gold in the leaves, twigs and bark of some trees.
Computer
Gold is used in some hardware elements of your personal computers. More gold can be recovered from one ton of computers than from 17 tonnes of gold mines.
Olympic Medals
The amount of gold in gold medals awarded at the Olympics is 1.34% of the total weight of the medal.
Olympic Swimming Pool
The amount of gold extracted from all the gold mines all over the world only is enough to fill 3 Olympic swimming pools.
Sun
scientists calculated that the Sun contains almost 2.5 trillion tons of gold, enough to fill Earth’s oceans and more. Still, that’s just eight atoms of gold for every trillion atoms of hydrogen — a tiny amount when compared to the mass of the Sun
Shrinking Marriage
Your wedding ring melts about 0.0006 milligrams in a year due to wearing and removing it.
Do you know any other weird, odd or interesting facts about gold? If you do why not tell us in the comments below.
