Shiny gold has some sentimental values, it can stimulate the economy, is the object of desire of people around the world and the object of research for the scientists. But, do you know why this metal is so important for aviation or which country has more gold than the USA, Switzerland and Germany put together?
1. All that glitters is not gold!
When entering the jewelry store, we can get the impression that the shelves in the middle are yielding from the amount of gold accumulated in one place. In fact, we couldn’t be more wrong, because gold is a rare metal. Statistics say that every hour more steel is cast than gold was, over the entire history of mankind. Business magnate Warren Buffet even claims that if you collected all the gold extracted by man over the centuries, it would be only twenty meters high. According to the BBC, gold from around the world can be stored on the Wimbledon court. A one ounce of gold is more rare than a 5-carat diamond.
2. Space explores need gold
One quarter of the global demand for gold falls to jewelry, but it also has other, much more practical use. This metal is a very effective material for reflecting sunlight and thanks to it, astronauts and pilots are less likely to be blinded. Therefore, gold is used in the construction of aircraft windscreens and astronauts’ helmets. In addition, gold is used as a thread in expensive textiles or, for example, components of electric cables. When recycling, tons of computer parts recover could more gold than with 17-ton ore!
3. The oceans are full of gold
Although earth gold deposits are quite rare, our planet still has huge resources of this metal. The problem is that most of these deposits are in the oceans and are not available to us at this moment. Some figures say that 20 or even 30 million tons of gold are diluted in the ocean water. In one liter of oceanic water there is an average of 13 ppb (parts per billion - the accepted in the world way of expressing concentrations of very diluted solutions of chemical compounds). The deeper, the more concentration. Extracting such deposits is extremely difficult and simply uneconomical. However, if we could extract this gold and divide it between all people in the world, each of us would get four kilograms of gold!
4. India loves gold the most
Over the centuries, India has been able to boast of a thriving gold trade market. Nowadays - according to some estimates, there are 300,000 jewelers in this country, and as much as 11% of world gold is found in Hindu women's trinkets (about 18,000 tons, more than the US, Switzerland and Germany reserves combined).
5. From a distant galaxy far, far away…
Scientists believe that every ounce of gold on Earth came here with a meteor that fell on our planet 200 million years ago. Research conducted in 2011 by the University of Bristol confirmed the galactic history of this metal. It also underlined how the modern world and its economy depend on what was an accidental event. Research leader Dr. Matthias Willbold explains that gold has landed on Earth thanks to a lucky coincidence with 20 trillion tons of asteroid material.
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