Is gold stronger glass? – Materials Zone

Question: Is gold stronger glass?
- Keywords:
- Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more about:
  
  glass
  
  gold
Asked by I like Grapes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to Martin, Martin, Elizabeth, James, Rob on 16 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Rosie Roo.
- Martin Ward answered on 16 Mar 2015:
  
  gold is not very reactive, that is why it is used to make jewellery. However, pure gold is not very strong, in fact it is very soft! So glass is the stronger material out of the two. You could mix gold with other metals to form something called an alloy – if you got the mixture just right, you could end up with a material that was harder than glass!
- Martin Wieczysty answered on 16 Mar 2015:
  
  Gold is a really good conductor of electricity, but you could never make pylons out of gold, as it is very heavy, and quite SOFT, so will bend and droop down on to the ground.
  Gold was one of the first metals humans played with – it exists as a metal in on the earths crust, so early humans could pick it up. It can be easily flatted with a few taps of a hammer. There are many examples of gold jewelry from THOUSANDS of years ago.
  Glass is actually quite a new material – developed by the Romans. You need quite a strong oven to melt silicon dioxide (the main ingredient of glass) and shape it into windows. Many other things can be added to the glass mixture which can change how it behaves as a material. The problem with glass is that it can be very brittle – if you tap a window with a hammer it will break into many sharp and nasty pieces. HOWEVER – you can get very high quality glass that is used in submarines and airplanes that doesn’t shatter under pressure. In fact there are tall buildings around the world that let you walk and jump up and down on glass, as you see the city below.
- James Coombs OBrien answered on 18 Mar 2015:
  
  If they were both pure I would have to say glass was stronger.
  When gold is pure it is really soft. When you have gold jewellery it is normally a mix of metals making it an alloy which makes the gold a lot tougher.
  
  Both Gold and Glass aren’t very reactive at all. That is why we use equipment made out of glass to do chemistry and why people buy gold because it won’t disappear!
  
  Thanks for your question!
- Elizabeth Cooper answered on 19 Mar 2015:
  
  Glass has a tensile strength of 33 MPa, gold has strength of 100 MPa. The bigger the number, the more pressure can be put on the material before it breaks. Therefore gold is stronger.
  
  However I think it depends on how thick the glass is. If the glass is really thick than it will be stronger than gold however it is very thin it would be weaker.

Question: Is gold stronger glass?

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