Posted on 01/08/2022 5:23:09 PM PST by Jonty30
https://www.wimp.com/dissolving-a-pure-gold-bar-in-acid/
Why?
Gravity.
NOOOOOO…..!
That’s my question, too. Why do that?
Obviously the gold is not destroyed but why mess it up?
Here is the actual link.
The beaker breaks at the end and the gold solution spills on the floor.
Still, the gold is all there and salvageable.
To make money from people who watched the video. I don’t know who this is, but if he’s well known he a few thousand dollars from the video. His only cost was the acids and authenticity stamp.
He made a profit, at least until he dropped the solution.
> Obviously the gold is not destroyed but why mess it up? <
You might find this story interesting - I used to tell it back when I taught chemistry. Physicist Niels Bohr had two gold medals in his possession when the Germans invaded his country (Denmark). To keep the Germans from finding and confiscating the gold, Bohr dissolved the medals in acid.
Full story here:
https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/10/03/140815154/dissolve-my-nobel-prize-fast-a-true-story
That’s a heck of a story. Wow. Back when folks actually earned the Nobel they were awarded.
This is what Neils Bohr did with his gold medal from his Nobel Peace Prize when the Nazis invaded Denmark. After the war he reconstituted it back into gold.
I did find it interesting.
Thanks.
The mixture of hydrocloric and nitric acid is called aqua regia - King’s water - for obvious reason.
Walter White would have used hydrofluoric acid.
Bohr was an all time great.
Hydrocyanic acid perhaps. They use it to leech gold out of ore. I don't believe hydroflouric acid will dissolve gold.
Not a fan of Breaking Bad I take it.
Fun fact:
During WWII, a Nobel Prize winner dissolved his medal in acid, placing the jar obscurely in storage. Nazis raided his lab/office/home, sought the award, but failed to find it. After the war, the jar was retrieved, the gold precipitated from the fluid, and was re-cast into its prior form and dully returned to him.
[reads thread after posting]
Yeah, what others posted above.
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