# Golden Amount **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936 "2014-12-11T13:07:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vegymper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/90db22/32.png) [@Vegymper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vegymper)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/1 "2014-12-11T13:07:51Z")
When we hold something very dear that we wouldn’t part away with, we Spanish-speaking people say “Ni por todo el oro del mundo” (nope, even if you paid me all the gold there is in the world) . But how much is it worth “todo el oro del mundo”? Anyone expert in gold over there? Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/2 "2014-12-11T13:12:44Z")
> **[How much gold is there in the world?](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21969100)** > > If you made the world's gold into a cube, how long would the edges be? Surprisingly, it would probably be no more than 50m, and possibly a lot less. Here’s an answer from 2013. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/3 "2014-12-11T14:03:53Z")
So, roughly, a trillion dollars. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/4 "2014-12-11T14:29:12Z")
The amazing thing about gold is that the amount that exists (above ground) in the world is known with a pretty high degree of accuracy, and that what there is never goes away, since gold is chemically nonreactive and never turns into a material of some other form. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/5 "2014-12-11T14:51:22Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > what there is never goes away I don’t know about [never](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record)…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/6 "2014-12-11T15:28:09Z")
How about all the tea in China? How much are we talking about then? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/7 "2014-12-11T20:26:35Z")
I had a friend who was fond of the expression “I wouldn’t \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ for a free weekend in Pismo Beach!” How much is _that_ worth? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/8 "2014-12-11T22:38:25Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > How about all the tea in China? How much are we talking about then? One million, seven hundred thousand metric tons (2012.) That’s 1,700,000,000 kg. At 2.2 grams per teabag that works out to almost 773 trillion bags. ---
**Author:** ![Vegymper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/90db22/32.png) [@Vegymper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vegymper)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/9 "2014-12-12T16:28:43Z")
Thank you, dear subsection of the teeming millions! I think that I could really appreciate to have the 20mt. gold cube at the backyard, at least for a couple days. I wouldn’t rather take in all the tea, as 1.700.000.000 kg would use some 3,7 million cubic meters of space. And that’s a LOT. ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/10 "2014-12-12T16:54:59Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > One million, seven hundred thousand metric tons (2012.) That’s 1,700,000,000 kg. > > At 2.2 grams per teabag that works out to almost 773 trillion bags. Are you sure about those figures? That works out to 100,000 teabags for every human on the planet. Now, I like my tea… but that’s a lot of tea. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/11 "2014-12-12T18:19:20Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > Are you sure about those figures? That works out to 100,000 teabags for every human on the planet. > > Now, I like my tea… but that’s a lot of tea. Let’s see: 1.7B kg of tea is 1.7T grams. At 2.2 grams / teabag, that’s 772 billion teabags. So a few orders a magnitude… ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/12 "2014-12-12T21:20:42Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > since gold is chemically nonreactive and never turns into a material of some other form. Since we’re in GQ, I’ll just point out that this is [completely wrong](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Gold_compounds). For a start, there are a number of fluorides. It even forms a [compound](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraxenonogold(II))with Xenon, a noble gas. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/13 "2014-12-12T21:24:50Z")
There’s a lot of gold in seawater. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/14 "2014-12-12T23:17:57Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Since we’re in GQ, I’ll just point out that this is [completely wrong](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Gold_compounds). For a start, there are a number of fluorides. It even forms a [compound](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetraxenonogold(II))with Xenon, a noble gas. Gold, as a practical matter, remains in its pure form except under unusual circumstances, which do not occur frequently enough to have a measurable impact on the amount of known gold that has been recovered. There is a difference between something being completely wrong, and being pedantically nitpickable to death, a risk to which nearly every statement is in jeopardy… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/15 "2014-12-13T01:04:42Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > Let’s see: 1.7B kg of tea is 1.7T grams. At 2.2 grams / teabag, that’s 772 billion teabags. So a few orders a magnitude… Sorry. When my calculator shows E at the end of the number, I sometimes have trouble with the conversions. Would anyone like me to diagram a sentence for you? ---
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2014, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/golden-amount/706936/16 "2014-12-13T05:05:39Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Would anyone like me to diagram a sentence for you? Sure, box it up in that mea culpa.:rolleyes: