Why is gold used

Gold can be something quantitative and tangible, like money, and at the same time, it can embody something ephemeral, like a feeling, even a host of feelings. So, part of the reason that gold has always had value lies in the psychology and nature of the human experience. Gold can exist as something that is quantitative and tangible while embodying the qualitative and ephemeral. It's a cold day in mid-December. You're strolling along Fifth Avenue in New York—either alone, or with a familiar—to look at the holiday shop windows.

It's late afternoon and the thin winter light has begun to fade; even darker earlier because of the threat of snow or rain today. The bells of Salvation Army red-kettle ringers grow muffled and distant; the sky lowers, closing in around you, as the first flakes of winter fall.

You stop, drawn by a Tiffany window featuring a discrete few gold pieces. Exquisitely designed yellow, pink, and white gold shapes peek from an exotic display of corals and underwater fauna. Lights beat down like the sun, coaxing the metal's incandescence.

Suddenly, a brisk wind rises, making flakes to swirl faster around you. A cognac? Regis, perhaps, snug with its familiar fireplace. Well, maybe you haven't had this exact experience. But you get the idea. Our ancestors were faced with coming up with a method of exchange that was easier to implement than a barter system.

A coin is one such medium of exchange. Of all the metals in the periodic table of elements , gold is the logical choice. We can rule out elements other than metals because a gaseous or liquid currency is not very practical from the standpoint of personal portability. This leaves metals like iron, copper, lead, silver, gold, palladium, platinum, and aluminum. Iron, Lead, Copper, and Aluminum. These metals are prone to corrode over time so they would not be a good value in terms of storage, which is required of coins; and keeping the metals from corroding is labor-intensive.

Aluminum feels very light and unsubstantial—not ideal for a coin-metal that could invoke feelings of security and value. The "Noble Metals. To assign value to a metal, it must be somewhat rare—so that not everyone is producing coins—but available enough so that a reasonable number of coins can be created for commerce.

Gold and Silver. Gold doesn't corrode and can be melted over a flame, making it easy to work with and stamp as a coin. Silver and gold are beautiful metals that are easy to form into jewelry, and both of these precious metals have their own devotees in fine-jewelry circles. Although silver can be polished and textured in multiple ways so as to catch the light and the eye, there remains no metal quite like gold.

Unlike other elements, gold naturally possesses a subtle array of unique and beautiful colors. According to the World Gold Council, a single mobile device contains up to 50 milligrams of gold.

Gold can also be found in most standard desktop and laptop computers. Gold acts as a reliable conductor, allowing for the rapid and accurate transmission of digital data from one device to another.

In fact, only silver and copper are better conductors of electricity. The earliest medical use of gold can be traced back to China in BC. Chinese physicians used pure gold to treat furuncles, smallpox, skin ulcers and to remove mercury from skin and flesh, says GoldBulletin. Today the metal is primarily used to treat patients with arthritis. Gold salts are used to reduce swelling, bone damage and to relieve joint pain and stiffness.

Gold is highly malleable and flexible. Gold can be beaten into thin sheets, only a few millionths of an inch thick. These sheets, known as gold leaf, are displayed on buildings throughout the world, such as St.

The spiritual park is made out of 1. The gold leafing provides a durable and corrosion-resistant covering, says GoldPrice. Space vehicles are fitted with gold-coated polyester film to reflect infrared radiation and to help stabilize core temperatures, says Geology.

Gold coins are also issued as "commemorative" items. Many people enjoy these commemorative coins because they have both a collectible value and a precious metal value. Gold use in electronics: Gold parts are used in cell phones and many other electronics. The best way to learn about minerals is to study with a collection of small specimens that you can handle, examine, and observe their properties.

Inexpensive mineral collections are available in the Geology. The most important industrial use of gold is in the manufacture of electronics. Solid state electronic devices use very low voltages and currents which are easily interrupted by corrosion or tarnish at the contact points.

Gold is the highly efficient conductor that can carry these tiny currents and remain free of corrosion. Electronic components made with gold are highly reliable. Gold is used in connectors, switch and relay contacts, soldered joints, connecting wires and connection strips. A small amount of gold is used in almost every sophisticated electronic device. This includes cell phones, calculators, personal digital assistants, global positioning system GPS units, and other small electronic devices.

Most large electronic appliances such as television sets also contain gold. One challenge with the use of gold in very small quantities in very small devices is loss of the metal from society. Nearly one billion cell phones are produced each year, and most of them contain about fifty cents worth of gold. Their average lifetime is under two years, and very few are currently recycled.

Although the amount of gold is small in each device, their enormous numbers translate into a lot of unrecycled gold. Gold computer connections: Gold in a computer memory chip. Gold is used in many places in the standard desktop or laptop computer. The rapid and accurate transmission of digital information through the computer and from one component to another requires an efficient and reliable conductor.

Gold meets these requirements better than any other metal. The importance of high quality and reliable performance justifies the high cost. Edge connectors used to mount microprocessor and memory chips onto the motherboard and the plug-and-socket connectors used to attach cables all contain gold.

The gold in these components is generally electroplated onto other metals and alloyed with small amounts of nickel or cobalt to increase durability. Dental gold: A crown made from dental gold alloy. How would iron work as a dental filling? Not very well Even at much higher expense, gold is used in dentistry because of its superior performance and aesthetic appeal. Gold alloys are used for fillings, crowns, bridges, and orthodontic appliances. Gold is used in dentistry because it is chemically inert, nonallergenic, and easy for the dentist to work.

Gold is known to have been used in dentistry as early as B. Etruscan "dentists" used gold wire to fasten replacement teeth into the mouths of their patients. Gold was probably used to fill cavities in ancient times; however, there is no documentation or archaeological evidence for this use of gold until a little over years ago.

Gold was much more generously used in dentistry up until the late s. The sharp run-up of gold prices at that time motivated the development of substitute materials. However, the amount of gold used in dentistry is starting to rise again. Some motivation for this comes from concerns that less inert metals might have an adverse effect on long-term health.

Medical uses of gold: Gold is used in some surgical instruments. Gold is used as a drug to treat a small number of medical conditions. Injections of weak solutions of sodium aurothiomalate or aurothioglucose are sometimes used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Particles of a radioactive gold isotope are implanted in tissues to serve as a radiation source in the treatment of certain cancers. Small amounts of gold are used to remedy a condition known as lagophthalmos, which is an inability of a person to close their eyes completely. This condition is treated by implanting small amounts of gold in the upper eyelid.

Each contains about 30p of gold, not a lot right However, with around a billion mobile phones in global circulation and each one with an average of 2 years lifespan, it soon adds up. With very few phones being recycled, this gold is lost forever. Gold is also frequently used in other electronic devices such as laptops and computers.

It is one of the best natural conductors of electricity which is why it is often found in computer chips, allowing your computer to pass on, and receive information more easily. With the need for so much data transmitting, the demand for reliability outweighs the high cost of using gold. Generally, gold is utilised to mount processing chips onto motherboards. Gold plays a key role in protecting astronauts from harmful infrared rays from the sun. The visor on their helmet is coated with a thin layer of gold which acts as a filter.

Gold is also used on space vehicles to help reflect infrared radiation and stabilize core temperatures. Some particularly up-market restaurants use gold shavings or gold leaf to decorate their more extravagant dishes. Gold also has no taste so the use of gold in food is purely for decorative purposes. Gold is frequently used in manufacturing due to its ability to conduct heat and reflect light. It can also be used as a lubricant in any number of engineering applications due to its resistance to cold welding.

Some particularly grand buildings often feature some form of gold decoration. Gold leaf, in particular, is frequently used to adorn important features on buildings all over the world. Some of the most famous examples include St. Gold leaf is created when gold sheets are beaten to an incredibly thin 3 millionths of an inch in thickness.

This amazing feat means the gold leaf is very versatile to gild and emboss non-uniform surfaces. It also reduces the cost of material dramatically, allowing larger areas to be gilded. The largest cost is, in fact, the skilled labour required to apply the specialist leaf. Despite this versatility, the recognisable yellow of high carat gold is usually selected due to its conspicuous nature. Less obvious is the use of gold in glass production.

It is utilised to create a red hue to the glass and is pivotal for climate control in speciality glass. Gold is frequently used in the cosmetics industry and has been hailed as a revolutionary ingredient in everything from topical skincare creams to lip balms and moisturisers.