"If you're not happy, buy some gold" has become a common slogan among young people. In addition to their monthly living expenses, many young people are willing to spend a sum of money to buy an inconspicuous golden bean to accumulate a wealth for their lives.
Gold has multiple attributes of value preservation, hedging and investment, and is increasingly favored by young consumers. Perhaps it is the awakening of the bloodline, or the general trend, gold consumption has once again become a hot topic.
Why is gold so popular with consumers, and how is gold formed?
Why is gold so popular with consumers?
About "Gold"
In the periodic table, gold has an atomic number of 79 and belongs to the metallic element. Its English name is Gold, and its Latin name is Aurum, which means "brilliant dawn". Its chemical symbol is Au, derived from Aurora, the "goddess of the dawn" in Roman mythology.
Source: Picture Worm Creative
Interestingly, in the language used by the Aztecs in ancient Mexico, gold was written Teocuitlatl, which means "god's stool", and the Incas believed that gold represented the glory of the sun god and called it "the tears of the sun" or "children or descendants of the sun", and there was a "meteorite theory of gold".
In Chinese characters, "gold" was first seen in Jinwen. Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty said in "Shuo Wen Jie Zi": "Jin ,...... , born in the soil, from the left and right of the soil", which means that gold is born in the soil, and its form is like a grain. The word "gold" in the modern regular script, some people in the geoscience circle interpret that the "person" above is the cover of the mine, the vertical of the word "king" is the mine, the three horizontal are the flat hole roadway (underground mine excavation channel), and the two points are granular minerals.
Source: Sun Qizhen "Gold Fun and Practical"
"Shuowen" also said: "Gold, five-color gold." Huang is long, buried for a long time without giving birth to clothes, refining is not light, and it is not against the revolution". It means that there are five kinds of metals, gold, silver, red copper, blue lead, and black iron, among which yellow is the most expensive, which is not easy to oxidize, does not rust, and will not be broken when smelted at high temperatures, and will not be deformed after being cast into utensils.
The ancients fully realized that gold has stable chemical properties, is a rare and precious thing, and is the "king of metals".
In nature, the naturally occurring mineral of gold is called natural gold. Its main component is gold, often containing silver Ag, copper Cu, iron Fe, platinum Pt, palladium Pd and so on. Crystals are rare and usually appear as dendritic, granular, or scaly aggregates.
It is a dendritic, granular or scaly natural gold aggregate
Source: finemineral.com
When the silver content of natural gold is high, it is a silver hue, and when the copper content is high, it is a copper-red hue; its chemical properties are stable, only soluble in aqua regia; it has good conductivity, its melting point is as high as 1062 °C, and it does not change color after fire, so there is a saying that "real gold is not afraid of fire".
Exquisite gold craftsmanship
Gold has low hardness (2.5~3), traces can be carved with fingernails, and good ductility, 1 gram of pure gold can be drawn into filaments with a diameter of 4.34 microns and a length of 3500 meters. Ancient craftsmen took advantage of this property of gold very early on, forming a traditional Chinese gold processing technology - filigree technology.
Filigree craft
Source: Novica.com
The gold is made into a series of exquisite jewelry, rich in details and highlighting the grace and luxury of gold through a series of complex modeling processes such as wire drawing, silk rolling, filigree, filigree filling, and stacking. The Dingling Tomb of the Ming Tombs in Changping District, Beijing unearthed a crown ornament made of gold silk weaving - the Golden Wing Crown.
Golden Wing Crown
Source: Beijing Daily
Jiangxi unearthed the Ming Dynasty princess's headdress, pavilion-style golden hairpin and golden phoenix hairpin, these golden, delicate ornaments, are outstanding representatives of traditional gold-making technology.
Pavilion-style golden hairpins and golden phoenix hairpins
Photo by Liu Zhenghua
In addition to the Chinese filigree craft, there are many other gold making processes. Ancient Egyptian enamel with rich colors and bright luster, silk with satin-like luster, noble and nostalgic black gold technology, antique gold with a matte texture and used by royal nobles, modern 3D hard gold with both hardness and wear resistance, etc.
Amber Gold
Source: jewelry.ha.com
Brushed and black gold craftsmanship
Source: School of Jewelry, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan).
Ancient gold and 3D hard gold craftsmanship
Source: sohu.com
These exquisite techniques throughout the ages have made all kinds of gold jewelry shine, so that consumers have added a little love to gold jewelry.
Uses of gold
In addition to jewelry, gold is widely used in modern high-tech industries such as electronics, communications, aerospace, chemicals, and medical treatment. In the field of chips, gold is a high-quality conductive material that enables high-precision and low-energy circuit connections at the micron level, and is able to maintain durability and resist corrosion due to its good chemical stability.
Using gold as the plating layer for the chip can avoid damage to the metal ends. Gold can also be used as a material for chip packaging and connectors, resisting temperature changes and vibrations, ensuring overall device consistency. Although the amount of gold contained in the chip is small, usually only a few micrograms or less per chip, the use of gold in the chip is widely recognized.
Gold is used in chips
Source: ifeng.com
In addition, although gold is not inherently a currency, its monetary properties have been recognized throughout history and are widely used as an equivalent item.
In fact, gold has been used as a currency for most of human history. The earliest place to use gold as currency was in Lydia, where the first gold coins were crafted.
Lydian gold coins
Source: sohu.com
In the 17th century, Britain established a monetary standard, and it was not until the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in the 70s of the 20th century that gold officially withdrew from the international monetary scene.
Although the properties of gold currency have gradually been replaced by modern money, its value preservation and hedging functions have always been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Due to its excellent physical and chemical properties, gold is not only "durable", "easy to use", but also "profitable", so it has always been favored by consumers.
Even buying a small golden bean is an investment, and it will be exposed to risks such as price fluctuations, market changes, liquidity, etc.
Guys, please remember:
Invest in gold with caution!
This article does not contain any investment and financial advice!
How is gold formed?
Gold is a precious metal, and before talking about its formation, let's understand how the heavy metal elements on the earth come from?
Formation of heavy metal elements
The earth itself cannot make elements, these elements actually come from the universe, and are related to the evolution of stars, the solar system, and the birth of the earth.
In the process of star evolution, nuclear fusion produces oxygen from a small star like the Sun, while a massive star with more than 10 times the mass of the Sun produces iron from nuclear fusion. Of all the chemical elements, iron has the largest average binding energy and is the most stable. All chemical elements lighter than iron can be turned into iron through nuclear fusion, and chemical elements heavier than iron can also be fissioned into iron, releasing energy in the process. Conversely, iron fusion or fission into other elements requires energy absorption. But in reality, the star stops producing iron when nuclear fusion.
It can be seen that metallic elements heavier than iron, such as gold, cannot be made by fusion in the center of a star.
In the second half of the 20th century, astronomers Hoyle and Fowler proposed the theory of supernova explosions. After the collapse of massive stars, the process of "neutronization" of the stars occurs, so that the iron nucleus continuously "captures neutrons", and finally the number of protons and neutrons in the iron nucleus increases, and it becomes some heavier elements, including all metal elements including gold and silver.
Supernova Bakugo
Source: Insider.si.com
Astronomers estimate that supernova explosions produce only 10% of the total gold in the universe, and the remaining 90% of the gold comes from "neutron star mergers".
This theory was proposed by American astronomers Latimer and Schramm. When two neutron stars collide and merge together, some neutron star material is thrown out because of the high-speed rotation. The phenomenon of "neutron capture" also occurs in these substances, resulting in the creation of all heavy elements, including gold. These elements spread outward with the expanding supernova remnants and merge into the interstellar medium in which our solar system was born.
Neutron star merger
图源：SciTec Daily
About 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system was born in a massive molecular cloud.
The nebula was originally floating in the cold of space because a nearby massive star entered its terminal stage and exploded as a supernova. The nebula was disturbed and a superdense region appeared, and under the action of gravity, the superdense region collapsed and quickly formed a vortex. Matter also accumulates more and more, and its center is concentrated into a dense sphere due to the presence of gravity, and its temperature and pressure also rise. When certain conditions are met, hydrogen undergoes a nuclear fusion reaction in the center, giving birth to a new star (the primordial sun).
After the formation of the Sun, the remnants of the distant nebula material continued to rotate around the Sun and gathered under the action of gravity, and light elements such as some gaseous elements formed gaseous planets such as Jupiter, while some heavy metal elements formed rocky planets such as Earth and Mars, and gold elements also entered the Earth at this time.
solar system
Source: v.qq.com
At the beginning of the formation of the Earth, the surface was covered with a sea of hot lava, with a temperature of more than 1,200 °C, and there was no air or liquid water, only carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water in gaseous form.
Studies have shown that about 3.9 billion years ago, meteorite showers carrying a small amount of water bombed the earth for more than 20 million years, contributing water to the earth. Over time, the temperature begins to decrease and the gaseous water begins to coalesce into small droplets, which fall in the form of rain and converge into the ocean. At the same time, the surface of the earth began to cool and solidify, forming the lithosphere. The ocean covers the surface lithosphere, and the Earth forms a water planet.
Later, the submarine magma erupted to form volcanic islands, then slowly formed continents, and after a long evolution, the earth gradually formed a habitable planet that we rely on for survival.
Formation of volcanic islands
Source: yonature.com
At the beginning of the formation of the Earth, various substances were mixed in a sea of boiling magma to form spheres made of a mixture of iron and silicate minerals. After that, differentiation occurred, and the high-density material, mainly iron and nickel, and heavy elements containing gold, were melted and sunk to the center of the earth, forming the earth's core. Later, in the long geological years, the earth experienced geological processes such as external asteroid impacts, internal crustal movements and volcanic eruptions, so that a small part of the gold in the deep crust was gradually brought out of the surface, and the gold element was gradually enriched to form gold deposits.
Gold Mine Entrance
Source: Picture Worm Creative
Therefore, gold is the element born of the vast universe, the "fragment" left behind by ancient stars, which accompanied the birth of the earth and the changes of billions of years. More than 99% of gold is buried deep in the earth's core, and only a few can be mined and used by humans. 1 tonne of gold ore can only produce 1-2 grams of gold, which is equivalent to 0.0002%.
Source: Picture Worm Creative
Therefore, gold is very rare, and it is a precious metal.
As a treasure of the earth, gold has been excavated, mined, smelted and applied from gold elements to gold deposits...... It carries the evolution of the earth for hundreds of millions of years and the memory of human civilization. Over the years, its excellent physical and chemical properties have been recognized and utilized by human beings, during which human wisdom has been condensed.
When we gaze at the little golden bean in the palm of our hand, please remember that this is a gift from the universe and cherish the moment we have!
Bibliography:
GIC Wuhan Institute of Jewelry, China University of Geosciences. There are all kinds of gold craftsmanship, let's see what kind of craftsmanship your gold jewelry is?2024.02.26
GIC Wuhan Institute of Jewelry, China University of Geosciences. Gold ≠ trend?Retro black gold justifies the name of gold2024.01.03
WANG Shuang. How does the gold on the earth come from? Understand the principle and "dig for gold" together! Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. 2022.08.11
International gold has risen to $2,260 per ounce! How much do you know about gold? 2024.04.02
Scientific review by Fang Wei
Edited by Zhao Yan
Source: Shanghai Museum of Natural History
Original title: This month, have you bought golden beans?
Editor: Apo