When I was a little kid at school I was deeply impressed when my chemistry teacher told my class that yes, they could turn lead into gold these days through the power of nuclear physics. Unfortunately, he went on to explain, the process cost a lot more than the resulting gold was actually worth.
Was he right? Is turning lead to gold ever likely to become cost effective, thus ending all the financial problems of people with very old pipes in their houses? And could you turn your gold back into lead again if you decided you didn’t like it?
Can’t explain any of the science, really, but as to the latter part, if it were possible to turn other metals into gold cheaply, then gold wouldn’t be worth much. It’s only valuable because of it’s scarcity, not from any inherent virtues.
What makes an atom of Lead different from an atom of Gold? Only the numbers of protons, neutrons and electrons. So yes, in theory, you could modify an atom of lead and change it to an atom of gold, or vice-versa. Will it ever be economical to do so? I sincerely doubt it, but then I never thought a computer could beat a man at chess…
I would just like to add that before anybody up and gets all these delusions of grandeur turning lead into gold, I’d first like my own personal jetpack. Get me a jetpack, and turn all the bald eagle turds into gold you want.
This has actually been done before - at least that’s what my high school chem teacher said.
Apparently, when gold is created this way, it is much more radioactive than regular gold - to the point that it is dangerous. According to him, a company sold some gold that was created this way (though they were supposed to bury it) to a company that made rings. They were caught when lots of people who wore the rings got cancer in the hands.
BTW, This is all anecdotal and might be an Urban Legend…
Heembo
It is an urban legend. No one has made enough gold in accelerators to waste it by putting it into rings. This stuff is made atoms at a time, at a cost of probably a trillion dollars an ounce.
I would just like to emphasize Anthracite’s point, when lead is turned into gold it is done at the atomic level, it’s not like someone sticks a lead bar into the “oven” and 2 minutes later he has a gold bar, an individual atom of lead might be transformable by messin with the protons but the high price of the process comes with the extremely small amount converted on each take
This Washington Post article may relate to the basis of the urban legend. It outlines how strips of gold from dismantled nuclear weapons found their way into ignots and presumably the jewelry market. Another article.
But there may be other sources of radioactive gold. New York State used to regulate the stuff, at least until 1982.
Of the 6 radioactive isotopes of gold that I found listed, the longest half-life was 186.1 days. Compared to other radioactive elements, that’s pretty hot!