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fredsam25 t1_j2zujn8 wrote

Reply to comment by BroodPlatypus in TIL that all the gold that has ever been mined in all of human history could fill about three Olympic-sized swimming pools. by westondeboer

That would be a waste of gold.

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Afrenc3931 t1_j2zyprx wrote

Not at all, gold leaf has all kinds of applications. For example, it’s the best material for spacewalk sun visors.

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fredsam25 t1_j302kjq wrote

But spread out on a tennis court, it's pretty wasteful.

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WarrenPuff_It t1_j30ah9e wrote

You can still use it after.

Gold is easily recycled

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fredsam25 t1_j30boh1 wrote

Good luck scraping gold leaf off a tennis court.

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WarrenPuff_It t1_j30cta8 wrote

Do you understand how easy it is to recycle gold off electronics? What makes you think a tennis court would be a difficult surface to separate gold from?

You dont need to remove it from the tennis court, you can dig up the whole tennis court and dissolve the gold in a solution and reconstitute it as a purified ball of gold. You can just shovel the whole thing into a smelter and melt it off. Everything not gold will float to the top.

This is a non-event, if people are willing to dig a mile underground through quartz and granite using explosives and mercury baths to get gold dust out of the ground, why do you think a tennis court will be any type of obstacle? It would be picked clean that day.

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fredsam25 t1_j30df40 wrote

The wind would blow half of it away.

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WarrenPuff_It t1_j30e4us wrote

People pan for gold dust in the streets of NYC. You are underestimating how quickly that wafer thin gold will be pulled up by whoever is working it.

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fredsam25 t1_j30fb5l wrote

You're better off not putting it on a tennis court in the first place.

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Forgot-My-Name_again t1_j30bz8r wrote

You just burn the court and separate the gold from the ash.

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fredsam25 t1_j30dmw1 wrote

It would just blow away with the smoke.

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Forgot-My-Name_again t1_j31s7cz wrote

Nah, gold dust is too heavy. It's a common separation/reclamation technique for gold in old flumes or carpets or other materials in workspaces where fine gold particles were common.

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fredsam25 t1_j31xcil wrote

You're thinking of gold particles. Ultra thin gold flakes are easily carried away in the wind. The ratio of surface area to weight mean that they experience a lot of drag relative to gravity.

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Forgot-My-Name_again t1_j31xn59 wrote

And you don't think a fire will alter the flair structure.

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fredsam25 t1_j31y4af wrote

The melting point of gold is around 2000F. No way you are getting anywhere close to that in a open tennis court fire. The gold will not be effected by the fire except to be torn apart by the plumes of smoke that would also carry it away.

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