Gold (Au)
"Meet 'The Gleaming King,' a dazzling, unyielding superstar who never tarnishes, making everything he touches eternally valuable!"
A memorable persona to anchor Au in your mind.
19.3
Grams per cm³
1064.18
Celsius (°C)
166
Radius (pm)
Daily Life Link
The ultimate bling in your favorite jewelry or the tiny, crucial connections in your smartphone.
Discovery & History
Year Discovered
Ancient
Discovered By
Unknown
Origin of Name
"The name is the Anglo-Saxon word for the metal and the symbol comes from the Latin ‘aurum’, gold."
Technical Properties
Atomic Mass
196.967 u
Standard State
solid
Boiling Point
2836°C
Electron Configuration
[Xe] 4f145d106s1
1st Ionization Energy
9.226 eV
Electron Affinity
N/A
Oxidation States
"It's a brilliant, lustrous yellow metal, incredibly soft and shiny."
Did You Know?
Mind-blowing: Almost all the gold on Earth didn't form here; it blasted onto our planet from ancient, exploding stars called supernovae!
Ever heard of '24-karat'? That means it's pure gold! Lower karats like 14k or 18k mean it's mixed with other metals to make it super strong.
Gold is so incredibly malleable (shapeable) and ductile (stretchable) that just one ounce can be hammered into a sheet 5 meters square or drawn into a wire over 80 kilometers long!
Unlike iron rusting or silver tarnishing, gold is a 'noble metal' – it barely reacts with anything, keeping its spectacular sparkle forever!