Q 01/05

What is the chemical symbol for gold on the periodic table?

A) Ag

B) Au

C) Fe

D) Cu

Answer · why

B) Au

Au is short for aurum, the Latin word for gold, which is why the symbol shares no letter with the English name; Ag is silver, Fe iron and Cu copper.

Q 02/05

Gold's atomic number, 79, counts which particles in its nucleus?

A) Protons

B) Neutrons

C) Electrons

D) Quarks

Answer · why

A) Protons

Protons: every gold atom has exactly 79, and since no chemical reaction can change that count, the alchemists' furnaces and acids could never turn lea...

Q 03/05

Alchemists hunted for which legendary substance, said to turn lead and other base metals into gold?

A) The philosopher's stone

B) The universal solvent

C) The fountain of youth

D) The fifth element

Answer · why

A) The philosopher's stone

The philosopher's stone was taken so seriously that in 1404 England made 'multiplying' gold a felony; the ban lasted almost three centuries, until che...

Q 04/05

Which physical property makes gold easy to hammer into extremely thin sheets, like gold leaf?

A) Malleability

B) Ductility

C) Conductivity

D) Elasticity

Answer · why

A) Malleability

Malleability lets goldbeaters hammer gold into leaf about a ten-thousandth of a millimetre thick, so a small amount of metal can gild a whole statue o...

Q 05/05

Which pharaoh's funerary mask, uncovered in 1925, contains more than 10 kg of gold?

A) Tutankhamun

B) Ramesses II

C) Khufu

D) Akhenaten

Answer · why

A) Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun's mask weighs 10.23 kg; in 2014 museum staff knocked off its plaited beard and hastily stuck it back with epoxy, and it took a German–Egyp...