Want to know why is gold yellow? (Chemistry)

Lino1406 · Nov 18, 2012

By chance...
"Why is brass yellow" is discussed
in the frame of "why is gold yellow".
Of course (sure gold worx knows about
it) the reflectance of gold is at least
20% superior to brass, what makes
the 'little' difference.

goldsilverpro · Nov 19, 2012

GOLDWORX INC said:
Lino1406 said:

The e-booklet "why is gold yellow?"
is available. 5 pages. $5
Give an e-mail

Click to expand...

There's kind of an easy answer. Take 70%copper, 30%zinc. You get yellow brass. I've smelted many metals over the years, a lot of gold in all states and purities, and there's one conclusion I can tell you for sure- it's copper that gives gold the yellow colour, lead that gives it weight and maleability. Throw in a couple of other mysterious elements and BANG !!, you got synthetic gold !! Just think about that yellow brass for a minute, it's near resemlence to the colour of gold, that should get you thinking. Gabor J. Kadar GOLDWORX INC. on F-Book.

Lino said:
By chance...
"Why is brass yellow" is discussed
in the frame of "why is gold yellow".
Of course (sure gold worx knows about
it) the reflectance of gold is at least
20% superior to brass, what makes
the 'little' difference.

GOLDWORX INC said:
You're obviously an ***** that knows very little about the subject of GOLD. I would suggest you keep your mouth shut. No such thing as "pure gold" until it is refined- so buzz off- do your homework .

Gabor,

You've crossed the line. Personal attacks aren't allowed on the forum. You have 24 hours to publicly apologize or you will be banned. If you do apologize, I will delete your offensive post and we can start over.

Concerning your statements in your first post above. Pure gold is yellow to start with. When you add copper to it, it gets redder. That's how they make red or pink karat golds. As Nick said, if you add just traces of lead to gold, it will become brittle and will crack when rolled. Just the opposite of mallebility. If you ever sold gold to a jeweler, they will often test it's quality by rolling it and seeing if it cracks. Here's a quote from a jewelry website.

"Gross contamination of gold alloys can also lead to intergranular fracture. Lead is a well-documented contaminant in gold alloys, and levels as low as 0.01% can result in brittle failure. Alloys with gross contamination would almost never make it through stressful operations such as rolling, drawing or stone setting without suffering severe cracking."

In other words, it is possible to have 99.99% pure gold, with the other .01% lead, and this alloy could result in failure due to brittleness.

Also, since the density of gold is 75% higher than that of lead, the addition of lead to gold would make it lighter, not heavier. And, brass is brass and gold is gold. Apples and oranges.

It is you that needs to do his homework. You've come to the right place to do this if you don't get kicked off first.

goldsilverpro · Nov 20, 2012

No apology. GOLDWORX is gone.

eesakiwi · Nov 23, 2012

I use a gold plated welders lens when I'm arc welding.
Its a dark plastic lens with a very thin layer of gold on it.

Since the lens sells for about $10 I'd say theres not a lot of gold on it.

They work really well, reflects most of the light back & filters out all of the UV rays. It gives a good colour rendition so you can differentionate between the different colours of the flux & the actual arc.

JFYI.