Home U.S. Coin Forum

All the gold ever mined...

WeissWeiss Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
This is this week's "Finance Quiz" on Yahoo!'s finance page:

Q.All the gold ever mined is equal in size to which of the following?

A tennis court to a depth of 19 meters

A Boeing 747

A football field to a depth of 19 meters

The Empire State building

answer...




















The correct answer is:
A tennis court to a depth of 19 meters


Although gold has been mined since at least 3,000 B.C., all the gold ever mined would
form a cube with sides of only 19 meters. The cube would weigh approximately 140,000 metric tons and be worth over 1.7 trillion dollars on the open market.
Gold has always been a resource valued by mankind because of its scarcity, unique characteristics, and beauty. Since gold is almost indestructible it can be recycled indefinitely. In fact, each year at least 15% of annual gold consumption is recycled. Gold's ability to efficiently conduct heat and electricity also makes it a key component in a wide variety of industrial applications. According to the World Gold Council, even your touch tone phone typically contains 33 gold-plated contacts.
















We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
--Severian the Lame

Comments

  • Cam40Cam40 Posts: 8,146
    also there just may be a whole lot more gold in the ground that hasnt been mined yet.
    new technology could very well help to significantly add to the amount of gold in the
    working world.
    just saying, the amount of gold known today,may only be the tip of the proverbial iceberg
    of gold percevied as what we think is a finite amount.
  • Hummm. A tennis court is 60' by 120',
    All the gold in the world works out to around the size of a 19 cubic meter cube.
    That is still not really enough to fill a tennis court to 19 meters deep.
    You could say it could fill 1/2 of a tennis court to 19 meters deep though.
    image


  • << <i> Hummm. A tennis court is 60' by 120',
    All the gold in the world works out to around the size of a 19 cubic meter cube.
    That is still not really enough to fill a tennis court to 19 meters deep.
    You could say it could fill 1/2 of a tennis court to 19 meters deep though. >>



    What it means is:

    A rectangle 60' wide x 120' long x 19 meters deep



  • RussRuss Posts: 48,514 ✭✭✭


    << <i>You could say it could fill 1/2 of a tennis court to 19 meters deep though. >>



    It didn't say it would fill the entire court.

    Russ, NCNE
  • RussRuss Posts: 48,514 ✭✭✭


    << <i>What it means is:

    A rectangle 60' wide x 120' long x 19 meters deep >>



    No. It's a 19 meter cube.

    Russ, NCNE


  • << <i>Q.All the gold ever mined is equal in size to which of the following? >>






    << <i>The correct answer is:
    A tennis court to a depth of 19 meters >>



    ...........................................................................................


    << <i>No. It's a 19 meter cube.

    Russ, NCNE >>



    ............................................................................................

    According to the answer provided it's [A tennis court to a depth of 19 meters >>



    If a tennis court is 60' x 120'

    then it would be a rectangle measuring 60' x 120' x 19 meters (or 62.3371') (3.2809' x's 19)





  • PhillyJoePhillyJoe Posts: 2,700 ✭✭✭✭
    One of the unsolicited stock tips I got this week is pushing a mining company in Nevada that has just made "significant gold and silver discoveries which hold unlimited potential for investors"
    I think it's trading on the big board under the symbol 'SCAM'image

    I'll ask the broker if the reserves are bigger than a tennis court cubed.
    Joe image
    The Philadelphia Mint: making coins since 1792. We make money by making money. Now in our 225th year thanks to no competition. image
  • RussRuss Posts: 48,514 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Although gold has been mined since at least 3,000 B.C., all the gold ever mined would
    form a cube with sides of only 19 meters. >>



    Russ, NCNE


  • << <i><< Although gold has been mined since at least 3,000 B.C., all the gold ever mined would
    form a cube with sides of only 19 meters. >>

    Russ, NCNE >>





    Then why include the answer with reference to the size of a Tennis court ?



    << <i>A tennis court to a depth of 19 meters >>



  • ARCOARCO Posts: 4,396 ✭✭✭✭✭
    How flat would you be mushed into cell juice if that 19X19 Meter cube of gold fell on you? That is what I want to know. image

    I like to think in terms of purchasing power with prostitutes or strippers as my base cost. How many hookers o strippers could you buy with that cube of gold?

    Very interesting questions indeed. LOL
  • mgoodm3mgoodm3 Posts: 17,497 ✭✭✭
    What's the going rate for strippers?
    coinimaging.com/my photography articles Check out the new macro lens testing section
  • If we were able to mine all of the gold in the earth's core, which is only 1% of the core, we could cover the entier surface of the earth with gold, 3 feet deep.


  • << <i> What's the going rate for strippers? >>



    two cubes of the Gold to help cure the STD's



    image
  • tennis court dimensions


    singles court is 27 ft X 78 ft

    doubles court is 36 ft X 78 ft


    with end and side margins, the standard court is 60 X 120, but the actual court sizes are as shown above.

    Mike




  • I'll go 800,000,000,000 but that's my final offer..........
  • SanctionIISanctionII Posts: 12,102 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Interesting thread. Is gold really that rare and scarce; or is it merely percieved that way by humans?

    Diamonds are viewed in the same manner as is gold. Diamonds are merely carbon which has been subjected to extreme pressures. Take a lump of coal and squeeze it hard enough and a diamond will result.

    Are diamonds all that rare and scarce? Who knows. However, for those persons with inquiring minds, who like diamonds and who have a penchant for science/science fiction, I heartily recommend that you read Arthur C. Clarke's books which are a sequel to 2001, A Space Odyessy. If memory serves me correctly, in 2010 the planet Jupiter is discovered to have a diamond core [the author references an actual scientific study that theorizes the existence of same], portions of which are ejected into the solar system when Jupiter explodes into a mini sun. The result is diamond chunks the size of mountains hurling through our solar system, just waiting for to be harvested by DeBeer's or an enterprising soul. If this were in fact true, just think how the diamond market on earht would react?
  • bigtonydallasbigtonydallas Posts: 1,126 ✭✭✭
    The current belief is that diamonds were not formed from coal but from pockets of CO2 trapped in the earths crust. The enormous pressure and heat squezzes the oxygen out and you have pure carbon left that is cooked for millions of years. Then another process has brought this almost pure carbon to the surface.

    Did you know a diamond will catch on fire?

    I go to Murfreesboro Arkansas every few years looking for diamonds!
    Big Tony from Texas! Cherrypicking fool!!!!!!
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,530 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>How flat would you be mushed into cell juice if that 19X19 Meter cube of gold fell on you? That is what I want to know. >>



    I dunno, but it would leave a helluva crater, that's fer sure!

    You could ask the fire ant I encountered in the bathroom last night, for a firsthand answer on what the experience of being flattened is like.

    Explore collections of lordmarcovan on CollecOnline, management, safe-keeping, sharing and valuation solution for art piece and collectibles.
  • mgoodm3mgoodm3 Posts: 17,497 ✭✭✭


    << <i>The current belief is that diamonds were not formed from coal but from pockets of CO2 trapped in the earths crust. The enormous pressure and heat squezzes the oxygen out and you have pure carbon left that is cooked for millions of years. Then another process has brought this almost pure carbon to the surface.

    Did you know a diamond will catch on fire?

    I go to Murfreesboro Arkansas every few years looking for diamonds! >>




    I would bet that most anything else nearby would catch fire first. carbon is pretty dang heat resistant.

    I've been to Murfreesboro digging around in the diamond field. Didn't find anything, but didn't really know what I was looking for. My grandparants lived about 40 miles away.
    coinimaging.com/my photography articles Check out the new macro lens testing section
  • tincuptincup Posts: 5,122 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Diamonds? Rare? Depends on how you look at it.

    From what I've seen over the years..... diamonds are not that rare. The only reason they are 'rare' is because it is an extremely controlled monopoly by DeBeers; perhaps with a few countries closely tied with them. Although there are not many areas that produce diamonds, when a new one is discovered, DeBeers will do all that it can to purchase the rights to it.... and then just hold it. They only release a certain, controlled amount of diamonds per year; a mixture of some nice ones and some not so nice ones, and thus control the price at the level that it is at.

    Russia holds a hugh supply of diamonds; one that would break the hold that DeBeers has on the market, if they would ever release groups of them. When the Soviet Union fell, I remember a television program where a news crew were invited into one of the vaults where the Soviet Union was storing some of the diamonds. It was a fairly large room, with metal shelves like you would see in a warehouse storage building. These shelves were filled.... with bags and bags of diamonds! They were separated according to sizes. The guide said.... if you would want 10 carot size..... step this way to this shelf..... then proceeded to open one of the bags and pulled out a handful of diamonds of that size! And there were more bags..... of cut and uncut diamonds.

    So I don't think they are really rare.... just a fantatically controlled commodity. And we thought the silver market was controlled and manipulated.... that is nothing compared to diamonds!
    ----- kj
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 24,252 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I hear Roadrunner's got all the gold. Why don't we just ask him?
    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • There was a show on the Discovery channel the other night about a diamond mine in Canada. A prospector got a buddy to invest with him and they own a huge, highly mechanized facility that has a small labor force. If I remember right, a second diamond mine opened nearby and DeBeers is going to open their own, smaller mine about twenty miles away.

    They showed some very flashy, shiny, sparkly, cut and cleaned diamonds and they looked magnificent.



    The answer to the gold question seems to be inaccurate or inaccurately described. A cube is a solid figure with six square faces that are the same size. A tennis court could therefore never be a cube. I believe the answer is that all the gold would fill a container the size of a tennis court that is 19 meters tall.

    Wonder how much of that container the gold in Ft. Knox would fill up? Does 10% sound about right?
    Holes-in-One
    1. 7-17-81 Warrenton GC Driver 310 yards 7th Hole (Par 4)
    2. 5-22-99 Warrenton GC 6 iron 189 yards 10th Hole
    3. 7-23-99 Oak Meadow CC 5 iron 180 yards 17th Hole
    4. 9-19-99 Country Lake GC 6 iron 164 yards 15th Hole
    5. 8-30-09 Country Lake GC Driver 258 yards 17th Hole (Par 4)

    Collector of Barber Halves, Commems, MS64FBL Frankies, Full Step Jeffersons & Mint state Washington Quarters
  • Cam40Cam40 Posts: 8,146
    the value in a diamond is all in the way its cut.
    raw diamonds are like a dime a dozen,figuratively speaking.
  • That "All the gold ever mined would form a cube 60 feet on a side" figure has been the standard answer since at least the early 1960's. Obviously all the gold mined with modern equipment in the last 44 years hasn't changed it. Either that or now it will fill the tennis court which would require a second 60 foot cube meaning that they have doubled the amount of mined gold in 44 years. Personally I think either figure is just a wild guess with no data to support it.

Leave a Comment

BoldItalicStrikethroughOrdered listUnordered list
Emoji
Image
Align leftAlign centerAlign rightToggle HTML viewToggle full pageToggle lights
Drop image/file