Thglimited - Heavy Industries

For another installment of Scientific Things, our attention is turned again to the Olympics, in which all that glitters is approximately 7.5 percent gold.

Each of the 1,014 podium athletes in Vancouver (615 Olympic, 399 Paralympic) receives a completely individual medal. No two are exactly alike. The 2010 medals are undulating, wavy disks with laser-etched designs of Aboriginal art unique to each medal. In a nod to eco-friendliness, a small percentage of the gold, silver, and copper used in the medals were recovered from discarded electronic circuit boards.

Back to that 7.5 percent gold content: the gold medals awarded at the Games are actually mostly silver, with six grams of gold plating. Silver medals are made from sterling silver, which is composed of 7.5 percent copper and 92.5 percent silver. As for the bronze medals, they are mostly copper. (I wasn’t able to confirm the copper content, but there is usually tin included in the bronze alloy.)

Click on the poster for a high resolution image: