An element that has long been considered the "king of metals", or "the metal of royalty", an element that has been part of the history of humanity, both economic, social and political, is , I will tell you now about Gold, and although it is well known, there are still many things to discover. Gold itself is a very old element, remonstrating its existence in the heart of stars in a supernova state, when the star can no longer continue to fuse more elements in its interior (like iron) and its activity ceases, the outer layers of this collapse, and fall on the nucleus the star, monstrously compressing the nucleus, causing the iron atoms that are inside, end up merging for the last time, creating many heavier elements such as zinc, gallium, thorium, uranium, and of course Gold, and because of its explosion, Gold and other heavy elements spread through space.
However there is another recent study that points out that Gold is also created from the clash of two neutron stars, and therefore manages to contribute a large percentage of Gold to the universe, although this framework is still under study, gives a good explanation to the formation of Gold in the universe.
Now we advance a little more in time, in the beginnings of the man, this possibly had its first contact with the Gold in the Neolithic (7000 years ago aec), in the form of gold nuggets near the rivers, but finally managed to work it in the Chalcolithic period (5000 to 2800 years BCE), proof of this can be found in the artifacts of the necropolis of Varna (4600 to 4200 years BCE), the first worked Gold of the world, thereafter a new door was opened for man in the manufacture of this precious metal.
The name of this element comes from the Latin word aurum, which means "bright dawn" or "aurora", from which comes its chemical symbol Au, and receives the honorable place 79 in the periodic table of chemical elements, is of a very characteristic bright yellow color, and is known to be a little reactive element with others, like the iridium in the previous article, Gold does not react with almost nothing, except with the regal water (nitric acid plus hydrochloric acid) , or also with chlorides, bromides and iodides, it should be noted that it dissolves in some alkaline cyanides.
However the most interesting quality of Gold is that it is the most malleable metal that exists, since an ounce of Gold (31.10 grams), can be molded in a sheet of 28 square meters, only 30 grams of Gold can be converted in an extremely fine wire of 80 kilometers, another quality that also takes the prize, is its high thermoelectric conductivity, only surpassed by silver and after this, is the metal that conducts electricity better, these factors make it exquisite for the manufacture of bridges and microcomponents of electronic circuits, in works of art, high quality jewelry, and coins, many coins, which were used as a means of economic exchange in antiquity.
Of all the existing isotopes of gold, the most stable and unique to be found in nature, is the Oro-197, and then 36 man-made synthetic isotopes, isotopes of Gold as Gold-171 and Gold-182 they are radioactive, they imagine, Radioactive gold !.
The country that has produced the most Gold in the world has been China, with more than 453 tons in 2016, followed by Australia with 270 tons, Russia with 250 tons, the United States with 216 tons and Peru with 176 tons Gold.
In ancient times the alchemists thought that they could convert Lead into Gold by means of the famous and nonexistent Philosopher's Stone, a stone whose obtaining could achieve several phenomena, among them, to transmute the Lead in Gold, although in the antiquity it was impossible to do it by this means, today it is known that if it can be done, since the lead has 82 protons while the Gold 79, so to convert it to Gold, the lead must lose 3 protons, but due to it, getting it is much more expensive than the same gold resulting.
However, an interesting question is, why gold is golden? Why not silver or reddish? and is that the same answer is found in their atoms, in how they absorb and reflect light, as we know, elements such as silver and aluminum are silver, and this is because they reflect in almost all the light spectrum , and therefore appear to be colorless; however, Gold, which is the element of interest, absorbs the blue and green of the light spectrum by means of its atoms, reflecting the remaining colors, thus giving a striking yellowish tone to your appearance.
A special point is also to know why the 24-karat Gold is considered pure, while the smaller is not, and is that being 24 karat indicates that Gold is pure in 24 parts of it, or in its entirety, measure created in ancient Rome in 369 AD. c. by the Emperor Constantine I, when Gold possesses 18 carats (75% Gold), Indica having 18 parts of Gold, and 6 parts of another metal such as silver or copper, this is the minimum limit used to be called High quality gold, if it has 14 carats (58.33% of Gold), has 14 parts of Gold, and 10 of another metal, which is already impure but still usable in jewelry and in the industrial field.
As a final point, one last question remains, why is gold valuable ?, or, why was it so valuable ?, if we see it from the chemical point of view, is a metal that may be uninteresting, since in itself reacts almost with nothing, and its use in hunting as in war, were not at all practical since it is very soft, then, because it was, and is so valuable the Gold ?, everything seems to indicate that it was the religious concept that was held on this metal, since it was considered as in ancient times as the metal of the gods, and was used to worship them, besides that Gold represented the Sun, then was used by kings and emperors who used it as a symbol of authority and social status, therefore humanity began to use it as a social badge and symbol of prestige, which few could show, today this has not changed much, and is still considered Gold, as a symbol of wealth and prestige, for example in prizes of c ine or sports, such as the Golden Ball, or the Olympic gold medals.
