Treasure From Asteroids

[Moontanman]

Gold or to be precise, it's value is inflated by it's use as currency. The addition of many times the gold we currently have would drop the price of gold but the boon to manufacturing where gold would be used if it weren't so expensive would create whole new markets for the metal. The idea of simply holding onto bullion is so Medieval in it's concept sweeping that away and using gold for a manufacturing resource would make sense as does using petroleum as feed stock instead of fuel. The price would drop but the things we could hake from it would make out lives better in the long term...   

[Strange]

12 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

Gold or to be precise, it's value is inflated by it's use as currency. The addition of many times the gold we currently have would drop the price of gold but the boon to manufacturing where gold would be used if it weren't so expensive would create whole new markets for the metal. The idea of simply holding onto bullion is so Medieval in it's concept sweeping that away and using gold for a manufacturing resource would make sense as does using petroleum as feed stock instead of fuel. The price would drop but the things we could hake from it would make out lives better in the long term...   

I wonder if it's possible that off-planet manufacturing could become practical enough that the use of gold for industrial purposes was economical while still restricting the supply on Earth to keep the value of the "precious metal" high in things like jewellery and currency. 

This assumes there are large-scale applications for gold which are limited by the price. Do you have any examples in mind? 

[Moontanman]

2 minutes ago, Strange said:

I wonder if it's possible that off-planet manufacturing could become practical enough that the use of gold for industrial purposes was economical while still restricting the supply on Earth to keep the value of the "precious metal" high in things like jewellery and currency. 

This assumes there are large-scale applications for gold which are limited by the price. Do you have any examples in mind? 

Gold wires in electronics come to mind, gold wires in electric motors, gold is a very good conductor of electricity and doesn't corrode... 

[Airbrush]

On 10/7/2019 at 2:35 PM, Strange said:

I wonder if it's possible that off-planet manufacturing could become practical enough that the use of gold for industrial purposes was economical while still restricting the supply on Earth to keep the value of the "precious metal" high in things like jewellery and currency. 

This assumes there are large-scale applications for gold which are limited by the price. Do you have any examples in mind? 

That is a reasonable supposition. 

Perhaps gold can be rolled out flat, and make huge sails that use laser push to get probes up to high speeds?

Edited October 11, 2019 by Airbrush

[John Cuthber]

On 10/7/2019 at 10:38 PM, Moontanman said:

... gold wires in electric motors,...

They often use aluminium because, while it isn't as good a conductor as copper or silver, it's a whole lot lighter.

Gold would be a very poor choice for motors that change speed often.

If gold suddenly became cheap, metallic purple jewelry would be more common.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_gold#Purple_gold

However the energy cost in de-orbiting stuff is generally huge

[Moontanman]

24 minutes ago, John Cuthber said:

They often use aluminium because, while it isn't as good a conductor as copper or silver, it's a whole lot lighter.

Gold would be a very poor choice for motors that change speed often.

If gold suddenly became cheap, metallic purple jewelry would be more common.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_gold#Purple_gold

However the energy cost in de-orbiting stuff is generally huge

https://geology.com/minerals/gold/uses-of-gold.shtml

[John Cuthber]

6 hours ago, Moontanman said:

https://geology.com/minerals/gold/uses-of-gold.shtml

Thanks for finding a source which tallies with my view that nobody makes motor windings from gold, and that the current use of the purple Au/ Al alloy is rare.

[Moontanman]

12 hours ago, John Cuthber said:

Thanks for finding a source which tallies with my view that nobody makes motor windings from gold, and that the current use of the purple Au/ Al alloy is rare.

Any chance nobody makes motor windings from gold has to do with gold being too expensive to use in most such applications including the Au/Al alloy? 

[dimreepr]

1 hour ago, Moontanman said:

Any chance nobody makes motor windings from gold has to do with gold being too expensive to use in most such applications including the Au/Al alloy? 

No, not really. History only shows it's monetory value in terms of it's longevity...

 

Edited October 12, 2019 by dimreepr

[Strange]

1 hour ago, Moontanman said:

Any chance nobody makes motor windings from gold has to do with gold being too expensive to use in most such applications including the Au/Al alloy? 

Copper has lower resistance (per unit area) and is lighter than gold, so would probably still be the preferred choice. Silver would be better, if price were no object.

Gold is used for contacts in electronic circuits because of its corrosion resistance, which means it maintains its resistivity better than copper.

[John Cuthber]

20 hours ago, Moontanman said:

Any chance nobody makes motor windings from gold has to do with gold being too expensive to use in most such applications including the Au/Al alloy? 

No.

Even if gold was the same price as copper, it would still make sense to use copper for motor windings- because it is much less dense.

(Copper is also a slightly better conductor.)

 

As I said, part of the rarity of the use of the purple gold alloy is the cost.

That's why I said 

On 10/11/2019 at 6:17 PM, John Cuthber said:

If gold suddenly became cheap, metallic purple jewelry would be more common.

So, once again, thanks for finding confirmation of my earlier post.

[Moontanman]

6 hours ago, John Cuthber said:

No.

Even if gold was the same price as copper, it would still make sense to use copper for motor windings- because it is much less dense.

(Copper is also a slightly better conductor.)

 

As I said, part of the rarity of the use of the purple gold alloy is the cost.

That's why I said 

So, once again, thanks for finding confirmation of my earlier post.

I see where you are coming from, evidently my ideas about gold were misplaced but the lack of Purple Au/Al seems to be a but odd, we do have rose gold, white gold, red gold, blue gold, green gold, and a few intermediate and none of them including purple gold use any more gold than the others in fact purple gold is 18k... 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_gold

Quote

Purple gold[edit]

 

Gold–aluminium phase diagram

Purple gold (also called amethyst gold and violet gold) is an alloy of gold and aluminium rich in gold–aluminium intermetallic (AuAl₂). Gold content in AuAl₂ is around 79% and can therefore be referred to as 18 karat gold. Purple gold is more brittle than other gold alloys (a serious fault when it forms in electronics^[11]), as it is an intermetallic compound instead of a malleable alloy, and a sharp blow may cause it to shatter.^[12] It is therefore usually machined and faceted to be used as a "gem" in conventional jewelry rather than by itself. At a lower content of gold, the material is composed of the intermetallic and an aluminium-rich solid solution phase. At a higher content of gold, the gold-richer intermetallic AuAl forms; the purple color is preserved to about 15% of aluminium. At 88% of gold the material is composed of AuAl and changes color. The actual composition of AuAl₂ is closer to Al₁₁Au₆ as the sublattice is incompletely occupied.^[2]

 

Edited October 13, 2019 by Moontanman