Saturday, November 21, 2009

Gold: precious element

One of the precious elements in today’s world is Gold which is used in wide variety of applications ranging from monetary exchanges to jewelery and industrial applications. It is because of the excellent properties it possesses Gold is widely used. It has an atomic number of 79 and the chemical symbol used to represent gold is Au. Besides being hard it is really malleable and ductile and can be beaten into thin sheets and wires. It is also a good conductor of heat and electricity and is non corrosive in nature. People are increasingly using gold as a means of investment for future because its price is expected to rise in future. Seeing this, banks have launched Gold coins having different percentage of gold for people to purchase.

A specific term related to gold is carat which tells us about the percentage of Gold present in the entity. Gold coin is said to be 100% pure when it is 24 carat. Till today it is the Canadian Gold Maple leaf coin which contains the highest percentage of gold in any bullion coin. This coin was 99.99% pure. But because 24 carat gold is really soft it is usually alloyed with metals like Silver and Copper. This alloyed form is then used in making jewelry.

Besides all this, Gold is widely used in the field of electronics wherein it is in the form of wires which provides a firm and corrosion free connection. Its use is also widespread in the field of chemistry wherein it used in the process of electroplating and in solutions which ultimately form colloidal gold. Not only this it is also used in the making of Cranberry glass and provides it a deep intense red color.

Like the stock market there is also gold bullion which keeps a track on the daily price change of Gold in the market. People can invest their money in the same manner as a stock market and can earn money from it.

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