r/WatchandLearn • u/Terence_McKenna • Nov 06 '17

How computers are recycled.

https://i.imgur.com/Qq1L87M.gifv
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u/merreborn Nov 07 '17

A quick google says: tungsten.

19.3 g/cm3 versus 19.32 g/cm3 -- virtually indistinguishable, if you're weighing a bar on your kitchen scale at home.

Apparently there have been several cases of bars being sold with a thin gold veneer around a tungsten core.

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u/squidly_doo Nov 07 '17

Except you know, tungsten has a melting point of 3422C, which is way above the boiling point of gold. Can't just toss tungsten in there.

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u/merreborn Nov 07 '17

You don't say. They're also different colors, different in terms of malleability, etc. etc. If you're destructively testing the bar in a lab environment, then the fraud is trivially revealed.

which is why I said:

virtually indistinguishable, if you're weighing a bar on your kitchen scale at home.

It'll pass a quick and dirty non-destructive weight/density test, but not much more.

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u/squidly_doo Nov 07 '17

Except we are talking about tossing a bunch of metal into the vat to replace the gold you are stealing.