What is Gold? At
Gold
first, gold may seem like it has nothing going for it besides being shiny, but there is so much more. Throughout history gold has been present, motivating kings and empires, but one might be asking, “What is this metal that has manipulated man?”. Well because I know you didn’t actually ask that, I will. What is this metal that has manipulated man? Well I’m glad I asked! Gold is element 79 on the periodic table, with the symbol AU, standing for aurum, which is Latin for gold. When you think of metal, you probably think of a hard substance, usually grey or close to grey in color, however gold is very different. Not only is it’s color strange when compared to other metals, but it’s actually a very soft and malleable metal, so malleable in fact, that one gram of gold can be beat into a square meter sheet. Gold also has another interesting property: it’s amazing at conducting electricity and heat. Because of these properties, gold is used to create electronic equipment. The color gold is caused by a bunch of fancy spatial relativity stuff that is basically summed up with blue light being absorbed and then the reds and greens make a yellowish color.
Declan K.
How has it been used throughout history? Earlier in this article, gold’s presence in history was brought up briefly. Gold has had such an impact on humans that it is suspected to be the first metal humans ever made contact with. Gold has been used by many civilizations for many purposes. In the world of today, gold is mainly used as currency, however some other uses of gold have been mentioned above. Originally, gold was used mostly for religious purposes. Some groups that used gold were South Americans, Asians, Egyptians, Greeks, and the Romans. One famous use of gold was by the ancient Egyptians, who were fascinated by gold. They thought that gold was a divine and indestructible metal. They called the shining metal “The Skin Of Gods”, thinking that it was what the sun god Ra’s skin was made of. They considered it was so sacred that gold was specifically for royal uses, so the Egyptian economy revolved around bartering.
How has it affected history? Gold, being the shiny metal that it is, has shaped many aspects of human history. A well known example of this is the California gold rush. This event, happening in the mid 19th century, changed so much about America and westward expansion. At first, the area known as California didn’t really have much going for it, but then… GOLD HAPPENED!!! On January 24th 1849, a carpenter from New Jersey named James Wilson Marshall found flakes of gold in a river at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This was, of course, a VERY big deal. Soon everyone and their mother was packing up a wagon and going to California to strike it rich… but not before dying of dysentery. Those whose lives weren’t ended horribly made it to California only to find that they were not alone. Keep in mind, news does not travel very fast, and by the time the people from the east made it over, the people who lived in the region hadn’t been sitting around. However, this did not stop the would-be miners, and by 1852, almost all the gold in the region had been taken from the earth. After the dust settled, the towns created to sustain the miners became permanent settlements to accommodate the now much larger population. The allure of gold had put California on the map (metaphorically of course), and it intended to stay there. Gold has a strange power to it… but you might be wondering… Bibliography:
Why is it so valuable? Well, at face value, gold is really just a shiny lump of metal, and honestly, it really is boring. Especially on a chemical level, gold barely reacts to anything. Other elements? It’s not very effective. Oxygen? It’s not very effective. So why is it worth so much to us? Well, it might be a little overkill, but by going through process of elimination on the periodic table we can find why we value gold. To start with, Gases and poisons can easily be eliminated because no sane person would want to buy their groceries with arsenic. Next, the alkaline metals, earths, and the radioactive stuff. With the alkaline metals and earths, it’s pretty safe to say exploding currency isn’t good, and with the radioactive stuff, it’s radioactive, enough said. Next are the artificial elements, which wouldn’t work because they only have a short lifespan before they decompose. The elements have now been narrowed down to only a few very similar metals. One choice that looks promising is iron, however it’s fairly common and rusts easily so that won’t work. Most of the noble metals have the opposite problem of being far too rare to be used as currency. This leaves some familiar faces, silver and gold, however silver tarnishes more easily than gold, so gold is used as currency and has more value than silver.
"Fadl, Ayman. "Gold in Egypt." Gold in Egypt. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2015. Gold bars stacked on one another. Digital image. Wikipedia. N.p., 2 Nov. 2015. Web. 6 Nov. 2015. Golden artifact. Digital image. Arabic Zeal. N.p., 7 Aug. 2012. Web. 6 Nov. 2015. Rowlatt, Justin. "Why Do We Value Gold? - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 06