Matthew Lasley

Facts about gold and gold mining

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1. Gold is a soft metal that is extremely strong and heavy.

2. Gold is 19 times heavier than water. If you compared a gallon of water to a gallon of gold,                      that would be like comparing your average cat (8 pounds) to a mountain lion (160 pounds)!

3. Iron is only about 7.5 times heavier than water. A gallon of iron would weigh about the same                    as a collie. That means gold is about 2 and a half times heavier than iron!

4. Gold has been discovered on every continent, even Antarctica.

5. Three Olympic sized swimming pools can hold all of the gold ever mined.

6. Scientist believe most of Earth’s gold came from meteorites that crashed into the planet millions              of years ago.

7. Pure gold melts at 1945 degrees Fahrenheit!

8. The fear of gold is called aurophobia.

9. A single ounce of gold can be rolled out into 50 miles of wire!

10. The largest gold nugget found in the U.S. weighed 109 pounds and was found in California.

11. The largest gold nugget ever found came from Australia and weighed over 173 pounds.

12. If you made a solid gold basketball, it would weigh 317 pounds.

13. Gold never rusts.

14. It is believed that 88,000 tons of gold has been mined since gold was first discovered.

15. Gold has been mined for over 7000 years.

16. NASA used gold to make the records of information that travel with the Voyager space craft.

17. An Olympic Gold medal contains only 1% gold.

18. More gold has been mined in the last 150 years than the 7000 years prior.

19. Your body contains trace amounts gold.

20. You can actually eat gold!