Gold is more than a pretty ring a shiny coin or a good investment. Gold is an element on the periodic table that has many interesting qualities which make it a very versatile and useful metal. Gold is known in science as the symbol Au, and has an atomic number of 79. This means that there are 79 protons in the nucleus of each gold atom. Gold atoms have an atomic mass of 196.967 and a radius of 0.1442nm. According to scientific theory, these numbers are much smaller than what would normally be predicted for an element of this type. However, that is part of the reason that gold is unique.
Gold is yellow because of the way that the electrons are arranged around the nucleus. Although the yellow color is purely a scientific reaction to the transitions of electrons between energy bands, gold is seen as a very pretty metal, which makes it highly sought after for decoration and adornment.
There are many different isotopes of gold, which are created by the varied number of neutrons in each atom. While 79 is a fixed number of protons, there is no fixed number of neutrons that an atom can have. There is only one isotope that is stable and not radioactive that accounts for all natural gold found in the world.
Gold has a high ductility because of its crystal structure, which is face centered cubic. This means that it allows movements and dislocations in the latticework, which provides the high ductility of this metal. Gold density depends on atomic mass and crystal structure, and is measured at 19.3 gcm to the negative third power. The melting point of pure gold sits at 1064 degrees Celsius, while alloyed gold melts over a variety of temperatures depending on the type of metal and quantity of metal that is add