Is Pure Gold Transparant?

[Rhondazvous]

When I was a Christian, I thought I'd found proof that the Bible is divinely inspired because in the book of Revelation it tells how the streets of heaven are made of pure gold and are transparent. The article where I read this claimed that astronauts use pure gold visors on their space helmets. How could they have known this back then when they did not have the technology to purify gold to the point where it is transparent?

I know pure gold is too soft to be used for anything much less street paving. Still, I wonder do astronauts really use transparent pure gold on their helmets? How would I answer a Christian who raised this point to me?

[Alex K]

It's just a very thin layer

[vorlon13]

If it is THIN enough it is transparent.

IIRC, even at that level of thinness it still conducts electricity well enough to warm up, so you have a way to keep the frost from building up on cockpit windscreens too.

[Anomalocaris]

Gold is not transparent in the sense that light can pass through any significant thickness of it, any more so than lead, iron, or aluminum.

But using modern techniques you can electrically deposit a layer of many types of metal, such as aluminum or gold, onto glass. The deposited layer can be made so incredibly thin that there is simply not enough metal atoms in a given area to block all of the light. So you can make many metals deposited layers appear transparent.

But pure Gold has an unusual property. Pure gold is so malleable, in the sense that you can stretch it like taffy without it breaking, that it is possible for a patient gold smith without any modern electroplating equipment to simply keep hammering a sheet of gold until it's so thin that it becomes almost as thin as a electrically deposited layer. This is not possible with any other metal, AFAIK. A sheet made of any other metal would break before you can hammer it to such a thinness. This malleability made it possible for the ancients gold smith to know if you hammer pure gold for long enough, it will eventually become so thin that it is transparent.

[Minimalist]

Besides, only a xtian dumbfuck would think that paving streets with gold would be a good idea.

[Rhondazvous]

Gold is not transparent in the sense that light can pass through any significant thickness of it, any more so than lead, iron, or aluminum.

But using modern techniques you can electrically deposit a layer of many types of metal, such as aluminum or gold, onto glass.  The deposited layer can be made so incredibly thin that there is simply not enough metal atoms in a given area to block all of the light.  So you can make many metals deposited layers appear transparent.

But pure Gold has an unusual property.  Pure gold is so malleable, in the sense that you can stretch it like taffy without it breaking, that it is possible for a patient gold smith without any modern electroplating equipment to simply keep hammering a sheet of gold until it's so thin that it becomes almost as thin as a electrically deposited layer.   This is not possible with any other metal, AFAIK.   A sheet made of any other metal would break before you can hammer it to such a thinness.   This malleability made it possible for the ancients gold smith to know if you hammer pure gold for long enough, it will eventually become so thin that it is transparent.

Another Christian myth bites the dust.

[Rhondazvous]

Besides, only a xtian dumbfuck would think that paving streets with gold would be a good idea.

Min,

Why do I get the feeling that your dislike of Christians is personal?

[Alex K]

The depth to which light can penetrate metals is limited by the fact that they conduct electricity. Since the electrons can move freely in a conducting metal, they will compensate the varying electrical fields coming from the outside (i.e. light) by moving and creating a potential in the opposite direction. This leads to the reflection (and absorption) of the light. This is why I would say basic physics prohibits any good electrical conductor to be transparent. The loophole is making the frequencies so high that the electrons are too inert to react to the external field, which is why far UV gets possibly transmitted better. In gold one can observe that blue light is already reflected less efficiently (which is why gold has golden color and is not like a perfect silvery mirror), and the rest is absorbed and converted into heat. But transmitting visible light, nope.

[Anomalocaris]

Sufficiently thin metal can lack enough depth to be opaque to visible light. You see this with various deposited metal screen on glass. Also, gold thin enough to be almost transparent still looks gold in color when seen with its reflected light, but it looks blue when seen with its transmitted light, because it preferentially reflects or absorbs redder colors.

[Minimalist]

Besides, only a xtian dumbfuck would think that paving streets with gold would be a good idea.

Min,

Why do I get the feeling that your dislike of Christians is personal?

Because you are very perceptive?