Periodic Table and Money

[palani]

http://m.npr.org/story/131430755?url=/blogs/money/2010/11/18/131430755/a-chemist-explains-why-gold-beat-out-lithium-osmium-einsteinium

Caught part of an NPR article this morning in which a chemist goes through the entire periodic table to figure out what metals make the most sense as money. His conclusions: gold, silver, platinum, paladium and rhodium.


A Chemist Explains Why Gold Beat Out Lithium, Osmium, Einsteinium ...

NPR

Sanat Kumar, with table.

Published: November 19, 2010

by Jacob Goldstein

by David Kestenbaum

The periodic table lists 118 different chemical elements. And yet, for thousands of years, humans have really, really liked one of them in particular: gold. Gold has been used as money for millennia, and its price has been going through the roof.

Why gold? Why not osmium, lithium, or ruthenium?

We went to an expert to find out: Sanat Kumar, a chemical engineer at Columbia University. We asked him to take the periodic table, and start eliminating anything that wouldn't work as money.

The periodic table looks kind of like a bingo card. Each square has a different element in it -- one for carbon, another for gold, and so on.

Sanat starts with the far-right column of the table. The elements there have a really appealing characteristic: They're not going to change. They're chemically stable.

[chad]

interesting story. i liked the part where the only viable ones could be rh, pd, pt, au, + ag, and coincidently, that's what we have ;D

[basplaer]

Caught the interview this morning as well. Interesting.

[Luis337]

thanks for posting. here it's available as a one page read

http://m.npr.org/news/front/131430755?singlePage=true

[JohnQPublic]

I caught it this morning, too. Sounds like "they" are preparing "us" for a new metals based currency. My biggest complaint is his offhand dismissal of silver as money (because it tarnishes). Sounds like we may be heading back to McKinley's gold based dollar.

[midnight rambler]

Cu is a sleeper.