Gold Doesn't Just Glitter by:Mark Nildern
Most people appreciate that gold is a highly valuable
precious metal, and admire it for its ornative qualities.
Is there is a woman today (at least in the western world)
who doesn't have at least one piece of gold jewelry? It
may only her wedding band. We know that wars have been
fought over it, people have died for it, people are
consumed by greed for it, others have betrayed friends and
family for it, once we examine the history of this lovely
metal. Gold represents wealth and power in the minds of
most people. Some of the more practical ways that gold is
used every day is what we want to have a look, however.
Deployment systems in air bags in motor vehicles, for
example, use gold-plated sensors to send a signal to the
air bag alerting the need to deploy. Gold was chosen
because It is the only metal wiht a high enough resistance
for the hair-thin sensitivity of this device. It is
clearly the best choice for something that needs to be
relied on in the event of an accident to save the lives of
vehicles' passengers. It is considered that reliable.
With the vast amount of communication that goes on in the
world today, phones of all types are needed. Land phones,
cell phones, wireless phones, you name it, are
responsible for the vast amount of day-to-day
communications that take place around the world. Yet,
without gold, we would be unable to use these savvy little
devices, since it's a critical element for the transmission
of a phone call. Every mouthpiece has gold in its
miniature transmitter, and this precious metal is also used
in phone jacks and connection cords. Due to its natural
properties, it's the best known element for conveying a
superior signal, ergo the need to utilize it in the phone
systems of today.
The space probe Galileo is completely dependent upon its
onboard computers. They are kept from short-circuiting by
the use of heavy ion conductors, made from silicone and
gold. If they did not have this type of protection, this
and other space vessels would not be able to function, and
we would lose critical information about the universe and
and our place within its structure.
The President of the United States uses gold each time he
travels, and not just because he wears a gold watch. The
American government supplies the President with a plane
soley for his use. This plane, Airforce One, is equipped
with gold-plated reflectors that protect the plane from
being targeted by heat-seeking missiles, and therefore,
from enemies of the state.
For additional knowledge, or In order to protect ourselves
from possible space hazards, we are constantly peering into
the skies. We need to have strong, dependable telescopes
to do this, so that scientists can see at great distances
in significant detail. KeckTelescopes are used
for this purpose, and they contain gold-coated mirrors that
look around our space neighborhood. We have received
most detailed and precise images of Neptune and Uranus ever
recorded from these Keck Telescopes.
The uses of gold for other than embellishment and adornment
or as a lucrative financial investment are varied and many.
Hopefully, now that we have started to look at the many
uses of gold, we will now start to appreciate the many other
contributions this very precious metal has made to improve
the quality of life for all of us.
About the author
Mark Nildern runs the website and writes for RI Gold, inc. which a site dedicated to researching gold related topics and contains all the very latest gold news and views. For more details please visit
http://www.rigold.com
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