| It was in 1848, that James W. Marshall first found | | | | Gold is a metal that doesn't tarnish or corrode and is |
| traces of gold in the water of the American River | | | | found in nature as pure gold; there is no need for |
| while building a sawmill for Captain John Sutter. He bit | | | | smelting or refining gold from its ore for its usage. |
| the metal and tested it in many ways and confirmed | | | | As gold is very reflective, it is used to protect |
| that it was indeed gold. He tried to keep it a secret, but | | | | spacecraft and satellites from solar radiation and in |
| word spread quickly, triggering the California Gold Rush | | | | industrial and medical lasers for focusing light energy. |
| of 1849. | | | | The purity of gold is measured using the term carat, |
| It is hard to believe, but gold is a very rare substance | | | | which is based on a total of twenty-four parts. Pure |
| consisting of only five ten-millionths of the Earth's outer | | | | gold is known as twenty-four-carat gold, while |
| layer. Gold is a metal, a good conductor of heat and | | | | eighteen-carat gold has eighteen parts gold, and the |
| electricity, and is solid at room temperature. It is a | | | | other six parts are of another metal like silver and |
| malleable and ductile element, making it very useful for | | | | copper. |
| use in jewelry and electronics. As gold is soft, it is also | | | | Gold is bought and sold practically every day in the |
| used for filling cavities in teeth and as gold teeth. It is | | | | world in the form of gold bars, gold coins, and gold |
| beaten into sheets less than one-tenth of a millimeter | | | | jewelry. The gold price is fluctuates greatly and |
| thick for use in lettering on honor rolls in school or for | | | | changes according to the demands of the buyers. The |
| putting gold in picture frames and ornaments. | | | | gold price is always listed with different prices on the |
| Comparing its weight with water, it is over nineteen | | | | newspaper, as different markets of the world have |
| times heavier than water and twice as heavy as lead. | | | | different prices. |