Ahm – depends how hot you heat it. If you toss it into the centre of the sun, then about a nanosecond. If you put it in an oven in a lab, then longer. You have to get the whole thing up to its melting temperature (about a thousand degrees). A big block will be harder to get to that temperature than a small one. So if you put a small pea-sized bit of gold into a special oven at 1000 degrees, it ought to melt in a few seconds, maybe a minute. If it’s a chunk the size of a melon it would take much longer because you have to heat the whole thing up to the melting point.
Bit like ice. Big blocks take longer to melt in drinks, yeah? And ice melts faster in hot tea than in tap water. Not that I put ice in my tea.
This brings back memories. 🙂 My first job was on a gold mine.
Gold melts at 1068C. That’s about five times hotter than the average kitchen oven. Working around furnaces, (industry name for large ovens), at these temperatures when the door is open, you need to wear protective gear to prevent being burnt. Our largest furnace at the lab was set at around 1200C and paper burst into flames instantly when placed in it. This large furnace was able to melt gold in seconds but we usually left it for a few minutes to be sure that it was all melted.
Gold, like all metals conducts heat really well, so when you place it somewhere hot enough to melt it doesn’t take long but like Matt said it really depends on how much you have of it.
And also, placing ice in tea is an accepted practice. Iced tea is delicious. 😉
What you are really asking is how long does it take for enough heat energy to flow into the gold to melt it. As Matt and Mags (the 2 M’s?) have written, this depends on how much gold you have. The more gold, the more energy that needs to go into the gold and the longer it takes. It also depends on the temperature difference between the oven and the gold. The bigger the temperature difference, the faster the heat energy will flow.
I went to Sovereign Hill (in Victoria) last year. There is a furnace there, at a few thousand degrees. The goldsmith said it takes about 1-2 hours to melt a one kilogram ingot of gold.
Ahm – depends how hot you heat it. If you toss it into the centre of the sun, then about a nanosecond. If you put it in an oven in a lab, then longer. You have to get the whole thing up to its melting temperature (about a thousand degrees). A big block will be harder to get to that temperature than a small one. So if you put a small pea-sized bit of gold into a special oven at 1000 degrees, it ought to melt in a few seconds, maybe a minute. If it’s a chunk the size of a melon it would take much longer because you have to heat the whole thing up to the melting point.
Bit like ice. Big blocks take longer to melt in drinks, yeah? And ice melts faster in hot tea than in tap water. Not that I put ice in my tea.
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This brings back memories. 🙂 My first job was on a gold mine.
Gold melts at 1068C. That’s about five times hotter than the average kitchen oven. Working around furnaces, (industry name for large ovens), at these temperatures when the door is open, you need to wear protective gear to prevent being burnt. Our largest furnace at the lab was set at around 1200C and paper burst into flames instantly when placed in it. This large furnace was able to melt gold in seconds but we usually left it for a few minutes to be sure that it was all melted.
Gold, like all metals conducts heat really well, so when you place it somewhere hot enough to melt it doesn’t take long but like Matt said it really depends on how much you have of it.
And also, placing ice in tea is an accepted practice. Iced tea is delicious. 😉
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What you are really asking is how long does it take for enough heat energy to flow into the gold to melt it. As Matt and Mags (the 2 M’s?) have written, this depends on how much gold you have. The more gold, the more energy that needs to go into the gold and the longer it takes. It also depends on the temperature difference between the oven and the gold. The bigger the temperature difference, the faster the heat energy will flow.
I went to Sovereign Hill (in Victoria) last year. There is a furnace there, at a few thousand degrees. The goldsmith said it takes about 1-2 hours to melt a one kilogram ingot of gold.
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