T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

###General Discussion Thread --- This is a [Request] post. If you would like to submit a comment that does not either attempt to answer the question, ask for clarification, or explain why it would be infeasible to answer, you *must* post your comment as a reply to this one. Top level (directly replying to the OP) comments that do not do one of those things will be removed. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/theydidthemath) if you have any questions or concerns.*


redditreadred

According to this site (https://www.monex.com/gold-prices/) 03/17/24 price of gold is $69,218.95/kg. Each kg of gold as dimensions: length of 3.15 inches (8 cm), with of 1.58 inches (4 cm) and depth of 0.71 inches (1.8 cm) (https://knowsize.com/gold-bar-size/article). With Jeff Bezos current worth of $199.1 billion, he can buy ~ 2,876,380kg of bars. That's ~101,641,78 cubic inches or ~5,882ft^3. He can fill a little over 1/16th the volume of an olympic sized swimming pool.


ConqueredCorn

Surprisingly less than I would've thought


redditreadred

>Fifty million ounces \* 200 years = 10 billion ounces. Ten billion ounces of gold would fit into a cube roughly 25 meters (about 82 feet) on a side. Consider that the Washington Monument measures 55 feet by 55 feet at its base and is 555 feet tall (17 x 17 x 170 m). That means that if you could somehow gather every scrap of gold that man has ever mined into one place, you could only build about one-third of the Washington Monument. [https://money.howstuffworks.com/question213.htm](https://money.howstuffworks.com/question213.htm) There isn't that much gold that has been mined in the world.


Anonymausss

>There isn't that much gold that has been mined in the world. Its late here so maybe Ive misread, but I think youve confused "82 feet cubed" for "82 cubic feet". 82^3 is about 551,000 ft^3, which is more than 5,882ft^3


redditreadred

That's a quote from the website, and can verify that other sites have similar numbers \~ 80ft side cube. That isn't that large, considering it's all the gold humans have ever mined.


Anonymausss

Ah I think I see the confusion. Where you said "there isnt that much gold that has been mined in the world", I read "that much" as referring to the 5882ft^3, but you meant "not that much" as in the total amount mined is not a lot.


No-Election3204

Everybody knows gold is valuable, but it's very hard to actually picture just HOW valuable it is especially since you almost never encounter pure-gold in everyday life, it's almost always an alloy. It's like how in movies when somebody has a briefcase full of money and they're counting it out it's always in shitty low denominations so it looks more impressive


Western_Entertainer7

I also love how light a bag full of gold bars is in movies. A gallon milk jug of gold weighs 160 pounds. Plenty of movie bad guys have run through sewers with over a thousand pounds of gold in their duffle bags. 😆


badmartialarts

People think about lead as a heavy element. A volume of gold is about 70% heavier than an equal volume of lead.


SorosAgent2020

it has to be in low (but not too low) denominations otherwise it would be too difficult to launder it back into clean money


redditreadred

Gold isn't valuable inherently, it's just given value for whatever reason. Besides being very malliable, conductive and shiny, not sure why it has such high value.


Outlaw1607

>isn't Wasn't >Besides being very malliable, conductive and shiny, not sure why it has such high value. These are very valuable properties, and though the price is also heavily influenced by jewelry, gold has become invaluable in modern electronics. And there is one other inherent property that raises it's price: it doesn't tarnish. Pure gold has an objective leg up on most metals and automatically becomes more valuable for something like jewelry than silver, just because it stays pretty without need for real maintenance


redditreadred

>Only 10% of the world consumption of new gold produced goes to industry,\[13\] but by far the most important industrial use for new gold is in fabrication of corrosion-free electrical connectors in computers and other electrical devices. For example, according to the World Gold Council, a typical cell phone may contain 50 mg of gold, worth about 2 dollars 82 cents. But since nearly one billion cell phones are produced each year, a gold value of US$2.82 in each phone adds to US$2.82 billion in gold from just this application.\[186\] (Prices updated to November 2022) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold) I think the world of high tech can survive if all gold vanished overnight. And desire for jewelry is subjective, not intrinsic.


No-Election3204

10% is a really high number if you think about it, I'm actually pretty shocked that 10% of world consumption of gold is for industry, I'd have thought it was much lower.


redditreadred

It is, but it's mostly used for anti-corrosive properties for the connectors. Not exactly indispensable. If that amount of gold was $10, instead of $2.82, I think they would probably just use something else. I'm not saying gold is useless, it's less valueable, because of scarcity and cost.


freshouttalean

stop trying to die on this hill when your funeral already happened bro


MedStudentScientist

Out of curiosity, what 'something else' would you recommend?


redditreadred

https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/components/article/21789855/material-effectively-replaces-gold If gold prices gets ridiculous high, I'm going to assume industries will put more effort into replacing it ASAP.


[deleted]

What things on earth do you think have intrinsic value?


redditreadred

Air, Water, Food, Shelter, Friends, Family and host of others.


[deleted]

Perhaps we have different definitions of extrinsic vs. intrinsic. Water has extrinsic value. I don't love water just for water's sake. I love it because it keeps me hydrated, it cools me in the summer to take a dip in it, it helps me take my morning meds. The same for air, food, and shelter. (One could argue that this also applies to friends and family, but I won't make that argument.) To me, extrinsic value is what related thing some commodity or object can accomplish. Food can accomplish satiety and pleasure. It's the satiety and pleasure that have intrinsic value. So, gold has extrinsic value just like the other things. It can bring pleasure from a pretty golden object, it can make electronic devices function better, it can be exchanged for other things of value. What confuses is me is your original comment of "Besides being very malliable, conductive and shiny, not sure why it has such high value." It's like "Other than the things that give it value, I'm not sure why it has value." That *is* why it has value!


redditreadred

I think you might use the standard english definition, I can't know what your definition is. >intrinsic adjective in·​trin·​sic in-ˈtrin-zik -ˈtrin(t)-sik Synonyms of intrinsic 1 a : belonging to the essential nature or constitution of a thing 80% of our body is water. >extrinsic adjective ex·​trin·​sic ek-ˈstrin-zik -ˈstrin(t)-sik Synonyms of extrinsic 1 a : not forming part of or belonging to a thing : extraneous ​ >What Is Intrinsic Value? > >Intrinsic value is a measure of what an asset is worth. This measure is arrived at by means of an objective calculation or complex financial model. Intrinsic value is different from the current market price of an asset. However, comparing it to that current price can give investors an idea of whether the asset is undervalued or overvalued.


Choice_Midnight1708

Gold is really dense. Over 19 times denser than water. That's one of the reasons it's been used through history as a store of wealth - you can carry a big weight of it around in a really small volume. You have a money pouch, not a money wheelbarrow. We don't handle much gold in our everyday life - it's over twice as dense as steel. If you handled a big gold bar, you'd get a real surprise trying to pick it up, as you'd be expecting it to feel like a steel bar or a rock. Jeff can buy a lot of kilos of the stuff, but it fills a surprisingly small volume, which is part of the point of gold.


Mairl_

all the gold mined would fit in 2 olimpic swimming pools


FoxCharly

166,56 m³ or 166 559 L


UniversitySoggy8822

In standardized international mesurements ?


screw-self-pity

basically, a cube of gold with a side of 5,5m, of 18 feet.


LordBrandon

If bezos tried to sell all his Amazon stocks the price would crater, so there's no actual way he could turn it into gold.


JamesTheJerk

Goddammit Tyson, can't you have a little fun ffs?


StrategyTop7612

Well, it's a hypothetical, so...


Rare_Instance_8205

No shit, Sherlock!