Gold (Au)
"The Golden Standard, the timeless, incorruptible hero, desired by all and the universal symbol of wealth."
A memorable persona to anchor Au in your mind.
19.3
Grams per cm³
1064.18
Celsius (°C)
166
Radius (pm)
Daily Life Link
Gold is found in a piece of gold jewelry like a wedding ring.
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
"Gold is a bright, yellow, soft, and dense precious metal."
Did You Know?
It is the most malleable of all metals; a single ounce (about 28 grams) can be beaten out into a translucent sheet covering more than 9 square meters (100 sq ft).
Its chemical symbol, Au, comes from 'aurum', the Latin word for gold, which means 'shining dawn'.
Nearly all of the gold on Earth came from meteorites that bombarded the planet over 200 million years after it formed.
Gold is so chemically unreactive that it never rusts and is found in its pure, native form in nature.