> > Dang, this is weird. Every single reference I can > > find on the Web -- and I've found a lot of them -- > > gives 19.3 or 19.29 as the specific gravity of > > gold. None gives 18.88. Is 19.3 maybe gold's specific > > gravity at absolute zero or something? Odd that that > > would become the standard figure. > > The difference is about 2.17% of the figure I give. > Rather than absolute zero, I would hazard a guess > that 19.29 is the specific gravity at zero degrees > Celsius. The figure I gave is for 20 degrees > Celsius.
The plot thickens. I checked the 77th edition of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics today, put out in 1996, and it gives the specific gravity (a/k/a density) of gold as 19.3 at *25* degrees Celsius. So the 18.88 figure from your old edition, Jim, just gets more confusing. Any explanations? Meanwhile, class, to help us all visualize a density of 19.3, here are some more of those cute little factoids about what you could do if you took all the gold in the world (140,000 metric tons) and melted it together in one lump: 1. You could shape it into a cube that would fit comfortably on the floor of Madison Square Garden. 2. You could cover the base of one of the former World Trade towers to a height of one floor. 3. You could replace the bottom one-third of the Washington Monument with solid gold. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
