They were talking about the price of gold in Pakistan on the news today and how it has reached its peak at ~45,000 rupees per tola and it could go up to 50,000 rupees.
This reminded me of transmutation. Historically, alchemists tried to and successfully managed to covert lead into gold!
Lead is an inexpensive element with the atomic number 82 (it possesses 82 protons) and Gold is an expensive element with the atomic number 79.
To convert lead into gold, we need to be able to remove three protons from Lead by physical means (not chemical). This requires a high input of energy because lead is a very stable element and does not give up its protons easily.
This process of transmuting lead into gold is so expensive that the cost of the process surpasses the cost of resulting gold and therefore it is not practical and is a waste of money.
If we can figure out a much cheaper way of transmuting lead into gold then yes we could bring down the prices of gold… another research idea?
Transmutation of lead into gold isn’t just theoretically possible - it has been achieved! There are reports that Glenn Seaborg, 1951 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, succeeded in transmuting a minute quantity of lead (possibly en route from bismuth, in 1980) into gold. There is an earlier report (1972) in which Soviet physicists at a nuclear research facility near Lake Baikal in Siberia accidentally discovered a reaction for turning lead into gold when they found the lead shielding of an experimental reactor had changed to gold. Source
BBQ muchas gracias, in the short time of being MOD here you’ve added some interests subjects/topics to the S&T forum. That being said any info you can dig up on Latex from a science perspective would be appreciated.
Also it is true that the early alchemists did produce in small quanities gold from lead.
However the so called Philosophers stone... is not a stone at all. In the words of the great alchemists themselves it's actually somehting we find in great abundance and yet have no care for it.
The philosophers stone is not something anyone will believe. Yet it's an element we are only starting to make mass use of... figured it out yet?
Faris: The philosopher's stone is just a metaphor, isn't it?
Not quite... it's actually an element which like the Scholars and Alchemists from the ancient times have always maintained is among the most abundant substances on earth.
In fact we use it every day and i'm using it this very moment in time. It's almost so obvious that we have all seen and known it... but not as something so important.
By the way it's related to a whole series of natural by-products and none of which resemble the original element, yet all are as amazingly transformed that ti think Gold could come from chemical reaction with such an element is not so far fetched....
^ For now, let’s just hope I make it through the masters sane & alive!
Faris: I understand the philosopher’s stone was an actual substance in the past and alchemists had different recipes for making this “stone” that could convert lead into gold and it also had something to do with immortality. But in the present day, its only used as a metaphor… at least thats what I thought… what are u referring to and how do we use it everyday?
