Gold is a beautiful precious metal. It is often considered a safe option for investment, and is also known as hedge against inflation. The approximate value today is US$1299.25 per ounce. That is about £772 per ounce.
A great place to read about Gold is from Thomson Reuters GFMS (Gold Fields Mineral Services).
[https://thomsonreuterseikon.com/markets/commodities/gfms/]
Some interesting statistics about gold.
Annual Approximate Mine Production: 2,864 tonnes Annual Approximate Old gold scrap: 1,591 tonnes
Total = 4,455 tonnes
The top Ten miners for gold are:
Barrick Gold
Newmont Mining
AngloGold Ashanti
Goldcorp
Kinross Gold
Newcrest Mining
Navoi MMC
Gold Fields
Polyus Gold International
Sibanye Gold
Now in Physics, DENSITY is defined as mass / volume
The density of water is 1,000 kg/m³
The density of gold is 19,320kg/m³
Yes 19.32 times heavier than water, it is very heavy. So in simply terms, a 1 Litre Carton of Tropicana Juice full of water is 1 Kg, and is that same carton was a solid piece of gold, that would be 19.32 Kg.
Now from Thomson Reuters GFMS have said there is 174,100 tonnes of gold = 174,100,000 kilogrammes have ever been mined in total.
So with the equation of density = mass / volume one is able to calculate the volume (size) of the total amount of gold mined.
The density of gold is 19,320kg/m³. We know mass is 174,100 tonnes.
By re-arranging the density equation: Volume = Mass / Density
Volume = 174,100,000 / 19,320 = 9011 m³
And 9011m³ = 9011 metres cubed. So the cube root of 9011 is 20.8m. Thus a solid cube of gold. 20.8m long, 20.8m deep and 20.8m high is the total amount of gold mined. That is the equivalent of a small office block or a large house.
Now what is the value of this 9011 metre cube = 174,100,000 kilogrammes ?
1 ounce = 0.0283495 kilogrammes.
1 Kilogram = 35.27 Ounces.
We know that Gold is £772 per ounce.
So 35.27 Ounces (= 1 Kg) = 35.27 x £772 = £27,231
Yes 1kg (a bag of sugar) is worth £27,231.
So 174,100,000 x £27,231 = £4,741,007,777,914
Thus 174,100,000 kilograms (the 20.8 metre cube) = £4,741,007,777,914 = £4.7 Trillion