Re: All that glitters is not gold

[Jerome Epstein <jerepst@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>]

Yes. SIlver oxidizes. GOld hardly at all.
J. Epstein

Paul Goodman wrote:
> For years I've been telling my students what someone told me when I was a
> student, that gold is the best conductor, followed by silver, then copper.
> Well, a student showed me a table of resistivities of various metals in his
> text (Serway, 4th ed., p 777) and, low and behold, the order is silver,
> copper, then gold. Could it be that this is the order in their PURE form,
> but that the resistivity changes significantly due to surface corrosion so
> that in practice gold wins? If I remember my chemistry, gold is not as
> reactive as silver or copper.
>
> P. Goodman