Interesting facts about gold
- The term "gold" comes from an old Anglo-Saxon world ‘gelo', or yellow.
- Gold's chemical symbol is Au from the Latin word ‘aurum' which means "shining dawn"
- Gold is the most malleable and ductile pure metal known.
- Gold never rusts.
- Gold does not cause skin irritation. If gold jewelry irritates the skin, it is likely that the gold was mixed with some other metal.
- Gold is so soft it is seldom used in its pure form.
- One ounce of gold can be made into sewing thread 60 miles long.
- Gold can be beaten down so thin that sunlight can shine through it.
- Gold is six to seven times heavier than other materials that equal its size.
- One cubic foot of Gold weighs half a ton.
- The world's largest gold bar weighs 440 pounds (200 kg)
- The world's oceans contain enough dissolved gold to provide every person with a piece weighing over 6 tonnes.
- Gold has been discovered on every continent on earth.
- A total of 165,000 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history, as of 2009.
- A one-ounce gold nugget is more rare to find than a five-carat diamond.
- It is far easier to find a Gold nugget than winning a major state lottery.
- Gold nugget can be worth three to four times the value of the gold it contains.
- The worlds largest "Welcome Stranger" gold nugget found in Australia on February 5th, 1869. It weighed 2,520 troy ounce or 172 pounds.
- As of 2008 Canadian companies have been dominating world's gold mining industry.
- Barrick Gold Corporation is Canadian largest pure gold mining company in the world..
- Grasberg mine in Papua, Indonesia is the largest-producing gold mine in the world.
- South Africa is the largest producing gold country in the world today.
- Gold reached a previous all-time high price of $800 per ounce in 1980.
- Over 15% of annual gold consumption is recycled each year.
- Gold is used in window glass and astronaut helmets to reflect infrared rays while allowing sunlight to pass through, and at the same time keeping it cool.
- Gold is used for the protective coatings on many artificial satellites, in thermal protection suits and in electronic warfare planes.
- Gold is used as the reflective layer on some high-end CDs.
- Gold can be used in food and has the E number 175.
- Edible gold have been used for centuries to garnish foods and drinks.
- Gold foil is sometimes used in South Asian sweets such as barfi.
- Some Native American tribes believed consuming gold could allow humans to levitate.
- Gold injections has been proven to help to reduce the pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis and tuberculosis.
- The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912. Currently, the gold medals covered in 6 grams of gold.
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