[Avodah] The Burning of the Golden Calf

[Michael Makovi]

>
> I am very unschooled in these matters, but I was thinking that maybe a
> strong acid could bore its way through the gold, causing a chemical change
> as it went along??
>
> KT,
> MYG


A strong acid would just dissolve the gold into a salty solution. By salt I
don't mean table salt, but rather salt in the sense of a metal and nonmetal
ionically bonded.

For example:

Sulfuric acid + gold

H2SO4(aq = water) + 2Au

H2SO4(s = solid) + H2O + 2Au

SO4 (-2 charge) + 2H(+1 charge) + H2O + 2Au

SO4 (-2) + H2 (gas) + H2O + 2Au(+2 charge)

Au2So4 (aq) + H2 (gas)

You end up with a solution of dissolved gold sulfate salt and hydrogen gas.
Thanks to first year college chemistry and a refresher from the Wikipedia
article on acid. Chemistry is some fascinating stuff, I'll tell you what. I
used to my chemistry to determine that you can easily detarnish silver using
a bucket of water lined with aluminum foil - basic electrochemistry: the
aluminum will donate electrons to the silver sulfide tarnish (I needed a
household metal higher on the activity series than silver, and aluminum fits
the bill nicely, but lead, iron, and copper would also work,  but lead would
be a health hazard), creating pure silver and aluminum sulfide - you've
created a battery! Then, you just need some baking soda (base) to prevent
the formation of hydrogen sulfide gunk (via an acid-base reaction). Connect
the silver and aluminum to create an electrical contact, and wait many many
hours!

Mikha'el Makovi
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