|
|
 |
|
|
Pages: 1
50x50
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)
Posted by: SKYHN
The other night I somehow ended up watching Jeopardy and it got to Final Jeopardy. The catergory was 'Elements' and the answer was something like 'This is one of the most common elements, but if you made a block out of all of it thats ever been mined, it would only be 50x50'. The question was "What is Gold?". Now how is that correct? Yeah, gold is used on small stuff, but what about all the gold in fort knox? Granted its not there anymore, but at one time it was(and is somewhere in the world now). There were something like 8500 bricks of gold there at one time. That had to equal more than 50x50'. I was thinking it was Admantium.
Posted by: TwiztidJuggalo
that is weird, i wonder how they came to that 'fact', i agree around 8500 bricks had to be more than 50x50', id like to see the logic behind this
-matt
Posted by: Ocean
did america get the majority of its gold from mines? but still seems suspicious
Posted by: redwench
well, aside from purity issues, which would definitely come into play, a gold bar takes up nowhere near 1 cubic foot. (block has 3 dimensions, btw, youre missing one) ill let you look up the standard dimensions, but im betting its less than 1/100 cf.
a lot (although i wont say most, as i dont know) of gold isnt mined. it comes from seawater, and some other sources. its fairly abundant, and being metal, readily combines with other elements.
im almost curious enough to go look this up, but not quite 
Posted by: Ocean
from http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/prospect1/goldgip.html
 Quote:
Gold in the Depository consists of bars about the size of ordinary building bricks (7 x 3 5/8 x 1 3/4 inches) that weigh about 27.5 pounds each (about 400 troy ounces; 1 troy ounce equals about 1.1 avoirdupois ounces.)
The basic unit of weight used in dealing with gold is the troy ounce. One troy ounce is equivalent to 20 troy pennyweights. In the jewelry industry, the common unit of measure is the pennyweight (dwt.) which is equivalent to 1.555 grams.
Mine production has increased at a quickening pace since 1980, reaching about 9 million troy ounces per year in 1990, and exceeding consumption since 1986. Prior to 1986, the balance of supply was obtained from secondary (scrap) sources and imports. Total world production of gold is estimated to be about 3.4 billion troy ounces, of which more than two-thirds was mined in the past 50 years. About 45 percent of the world's total gold production has been from the Witwatersrand district in South Africa.
|
Posted by: redwench
well, that would mean about 9M bricks (equivalent, naturally) in the world. they each take up approx .0257 cuft.; 231,000 cuft approx total.
depending on the size of the block [missing a dimension, and depending on if it was given in metric or english units] thats doable.
Posted by: AOTY2KB
Red there isn't much gold in the seawater. It's measured in ppm, not grams.
Posted by: redwench
i know that. but the crap they pull from seawater has to go somewhere. the desalinization plants sell that crap. lots of metal, salt, etc.
|
|
|
|
|
