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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- With the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi beginning, and the earning of medals has begun, an interesting question arises: Are Olympic gold medals actually made of pure gold? Trace runs down a history of the Olympic games and answers the question of what each medal is really made out of.
Read More:
What Are Olympic Medals Made Of?
entertainment.h...
"Back in the day -- way back in the day -- Olympic champions were crowned with wreaths of olive leaves following their victories."
Why Do Athletes Bite Their Medals?
www.slate.com/a...
"U.S. snowboarding champions Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler posed for pictures on Monday with their medals in their mouths."
What Are Olympic Medals Made Of?
chemistry.about...
"What do you think Olympic medals are made of? Are the gold medals really gold?"
What's An Olympic Gold Medal Worth?
money.cnn.com/2...
"Next week in London, athletes from around the world will go for the gold. But as it turns out, the Olympic gold medal is mostly made of silver."
Medals That Are Worth Almost Nothing: Raw Value Of Metals In A Bronze Totals Just £3
www.dailymail.c...
"They are the largest ever in both size and weight. But some of the medals handed out at the London 2012 Olympics are actually worth less than £3."
London's Olympic Gold Medal Worth The Most In The History Of The Games
www.forbes.com/...
"It is the ultimate reward for the greatest sporting event on the planet."
Olympic Gold Medals Contain Only 1% Gold; Would Cost $25,000 If Pure
boingboing.net/...
"The amount of gold in an Olympic gold medal has fallen to 1.34 percent, thanks to gold prices that recently peaked at $1,895 an ounce."
How The Sochi 2014 Olympic Medals Are Made
rbth.ru/multime...
"The jewelry maker Adamas revealed the secrets to producing Olympic and Paralympic medals for the 2014 Olympics."
Watch More:
5 Surprising Uses for Gold
• 5 Surprising Uses For ...
TestTube Wild Card
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How Gold Mining Works
• How Gold Mining Works
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for a gold medal to have anything other than gold in it kinda takes away from it, in my opinion. If it were up to me I would have the medals each weighing somewhere around 200g. in a ring shape made of gold.
pokemonmaster723 its not that expensive
***** If you use the volume of the Sochi winter medals (10 cm diameter 1 cm thick = ~78.5 cm^3) and multiply it by the density of gold (19.3 g/cm^3) and make it out of pure gold at the current price (~$1256 USD/ounce) you get close to $68000 USD per medal.
Actually, I'd like to see them go back to that olive wreath - made in at least 14k gold, of course. With a silver wreath for 2nd place, bronze for 3rd, etc.
k you pay for it through your taxes bro. and your money, not your parent's
Alkan What, do you think the U.S. government pays for EVERY Olympic event? The country that hosts the event pays for the medals, which means that the Russian government is paying for the Olympic medals this year, since they're hosting the Winter Olympics there.
They should keep up with the time and award these athletes the current standard titles.
1 - Grandmaster
2 - Masters
3 - Diamond
4 - Platinum
5 - Gold
6 - Silver
7 - Bronze
8 - Unranked
💯
PUBG lol
40 million is nothing compared to the cost of putting the games on.
That is completely.. True. Unfortunately. IIRC The London Olympics cost more than the LHC (the most expensive scientific device ever built (other than the ISS)). LHC gives us nulcear fusion. Olympics give us nice TV.
***** Tyler Cannington It may be true but not sad, if nobody gave a damn about sport, obesity levels would be "to infinity and beyond". With today's technology making life easier than ever, interest in sport and exercise is vital! With the Olympics providing idols for the younger generations, while also being a symbol of Unity. Unity that leads to peace. Peace that allows all the great minds of science to come together and create/discover wonders! Obviously, there are numerous factors that come into play when discussing such important topics. But, it must be noted that they compliment each other in a variety of ways. Take away science and we end up back in the stone age. Take away sport and all we have is a population so obese that gets a heart attack while trying to press the button for the launch of the next mission to Mars.
+Didivs Ivlianvs 40 million is alot for the one metal that backs the entire global economy
Gold is not exactly rare, they should just make the medals smaller and more practical so as to be something the athletes could actually ware.
In ancient greek every winner got his statue raised. That would be a SWAG!
I think olive branches would be pretty sweet
I second that movement
I third it too. and it is good for the skin.
Also its delicious after a long sporty event.
And nutritious!
Ya then you'll have a case for the olive branches
Yes it bothers me. I can't believe that the host nations couldn't afford gold or silver. Make them silver dollar size. That would not only show class
The "Mohs" in "Mohs Hardness Scale" is pronounced like "moes" not "moss".
I wish it was pronounced emohess for pure comedy.
"Yay, third place is still good" hahaha
Maybe I'm just a jaded American used to jewellery and things just bring gold plated, but I never once figured that the gold metals were 100% actual gold. Frankly I'm surprised they're mostly silver and not something truly cheap.
I did lol
I did until I realized how expensive gold is
Replace medals with generous handshakes. Third place should only get a high-five. lol
I don't think it really matters since it's what the medal itself stands for that matters.
That's some positive thinking! A round of applause for Julia, everybody!
never been a top comment in my entire life. How does it work?
i once got top comment with 480 likes with a stolen joke from another video who had only 21 likes. life is unfair
casper schat LOL xD
wow not so exciting as i thought. LOL. but thanks
Joshrey Lo you're the 5th guy on my comment section
Don't care about the medals as long as we beat Canada in everything.
too late ;) it already happened on like the first day (women's moguls) we got first and second...
First in slopestyle ;)
Sorry to say but as of now, Canada is placed 3rd in # of golds and silvers. :) That includes hockey for both men and women.
As much money as all these countries throw around worthlessly there is absolutely no reason these medals aren't made of pure gold, pure silver, and pure copper. Its just more greed for the companies and countries. 40mill isn't exactly a large sum to the countries anymore.
Countries and host cities already LOSE loads of money with the Olympics as they have to build housing areas and sporting arenas that they will more than likely never have any other use for. Adding another $40 million to a budget that can often anger the citizens when the dust clears is utterly foolish, especially as it is more about the prestige and the glory and less about the actual medal. No one can take away the fact one placed 1st in an Olympic event (assuming they test clean of all performance enhancers), regardless of whether one has the medal or not.
I never knew the medals were gold at all, I always assumed they were colored that.
You are the only one who got happy after watching this video
give the winners bitcoins instead XD
That's their excuse, "its too expensive."
They're putting these Metals around the necks of the best athletes in the world and they want to go cheap. So you mean to tell me, those Olympic athletes are not worth $1,000 to $1,500 a piece!
I'm pretty sure every 2 years the Olympics are making over half-a-million close to a billion dollars in commercials, sponsorships people buying their products in gift shops an other places.
But what do you expect! The bigger the company's the cheaper they get.smh
Hadn't actually thought about it before this video, but that was pretty much what I would have thought considering, as you say, gold is so expensive. And gold, silver, and bronze are so much a part of culture as first, second, third place or level that it would be weird to change to some other semi-expensive metals that would probably all look exactly the same. And, they are at least some portion real gold, silver, and bronze, enough that they are not cheap to produce (oops, except the bronze).
Hard to pose with 8 olive branches on your head.
I think gold/silver/bronze olive branches would look cooler. It'd be kinda hard to wear them if you won more than one though...
The branches would be like Julius Caesar ❤😂😂
GO AUSSIE! IM FROM THE ISLAND DOWN UNDERER👍🏼👍🏼
i want a platina medal(not solid ofcours, to expensif) for the person with the most gold medals in the entire olympics.
and a koper medal for most fourth places and no medals won.
LEARN TO RIGHT IDIOTIC KID
i wrote RIGHT because it shows him he needs to know that grammar is important
***** lol
***** Or learn to spell correctly with proper punctuation. All capitals makes the sentence skimmed over honestly, i do not read comments that are in all capitals. Now this being said ya that first poster was horrid in his spelling and punctuation, where do i start. It should of read. "I would like a platinum medal,(not solid cause that would be far to expensive) for the person with the most gold medals in the Olympics. I would also like a copper medal for most forth place medals won.". and now i am ending being a grammar nazi cause.. it really is not needed but at the same time, people do need to learn how to write and spell correctly, or else our language is just going to fall apart. :/
Also, there is a built in frig-gen spell checker in youtube itself, are you really not able to right click and correct the big red underlined words in your post.. really?
***** ya that used to be my argument to, because i am also not mainly English. But then i realized people correcting my spelling were really just helping me to.. unless there rude about it. I mean really i want to be able to speak and spell better, especially if i am trying to learn English. So when i correct people i am not doing it in a rude or, condescending way, more so i am just trying to help.
I liked the olive branches and the other designs better…. They should let them choose how their award looks. (The 2014 ones look cool though) (In my opinion)
6grams of gold = 240dollars
Here, not anymore. That pisses me off. It doesn't even make me proud if I had one. Then again, I like silver more.
Since the medals really are about the achievement and not the value of the metal used, I'm fine with them using an inexpensive filler metal and then an thicker outer coating of precious metal.
I think it'd actually be a good idea to make the medals a more standardized size too, something in the range of the old US Eisenhower silver dollars, maybe a tad larger/thicker, rather than the giant things they use now that are cost prohibitive for poorer potential host countries.
What if each country that participated in the Olympics contributed to the cost of the metals for the medals?
Joe Cavallaro not a bad idea. It still can create a bit of a barrier to entry, but with the cost split so many ways that barrier would hopefully be pretty low.
I heard that the gold medals on February 15th will contain a little piece of the asteroid that exploded over Russia on that date in 2013.
Really?
That's true.. and I want one lol
Didn't know this but it actually makes sense for a couple reasons.
1- the expense of the metals and safe keeping of them
2- It keeps up with the original Athens Olympic tradition of competing to obtain athletic achievement .
No it doesn't bother me it would be a waste to give them pure gold. What matters is a pleasing design and what it symbolizes for the winners.
Well although it's not made of actual gold, I think an Olympic metal would be much more expensive than the materials inside because somebody actually won it, at the Olympics...
unless its one by a really famous athlete most medals are only worth their weight in the metal their made of.
Trace is the best, coolest guy
Nice Strong Bad shirt, Trace!
Imo the gold medals should be made of more gold and then use white gold to strengthen them. I understand they are expensive to make but look at how much the Olympics games brings in revenue. Also, to ease the cost sponsors should help and pitch in the cost. These athlete's work so hard and many all their lives for that one opportunity. So they should be very special.
3:20 Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.
0:48 "to scratch that too, but the point is -- CHECK OUT HOW PURE THIS SHIZ!" (Turn on captions)
Pure copper juwelry wodent buy your medal, it's not pure gold. Want real buy gold melt it to shape like medal it's real deal.
Honestly, since you're not scrapping them (hopefully) why should anyone care what they're made of? Anything beats olive leaves. Plus, isn't solid gold really heavy?
The Nobel Prizes which are also mostly considered honorary also include around 2Million dollars, but how many of those are given out each year, like 8? Every two years there are many more Olympic metals than that given out.
They should give the winners a permanent tattoo on their backs. A fluorescent tattoo that says "I win".
If they win more than once, just put more of em there. Just stack em up.
If they win again they should complement it with "again" so it will be I win again. And after that they can just keep adding "and again" untill there is no more skin left. :P
A piece of gold doesn't measure against being the world best in any sport. The medal is a token for history.
I think the medals should be useable. A quarter pounder with cheese for first, a big mac for second, and a cheeseburger for third.
Orsbore u there
Wait a minute... laurels are not olive branches they are bay leaves on the branch bent into a crescent shape to rest on the head. Hence the term resting on ones laurels meaning not continuing on after achieving a goal.
Olive branches were given as offerings of peace in most Mediterranean countries.
I heard that the Oscar statues used to be solid gold, but haven't been for many years as well. No surprise on the olympic medals. I agree, it's not the metal that makes the glory and significance, it's the honor of winning one.
if they made the medals out of gold every year, the price of gold would shoot up.. attracting speculators, which would cause the price to shoot up even more. until it crashes again
Not anymore. :(
Actually i heard in ancient Olympics they got vases of oil i think not sure if it was oil but they got vases filled something of high value.
I don't think it should be up to host country to supply all the medals. Really, all the participating countries should have to pay a percentage of the price it would take to make some actual gold medals, kind of like an entrance fee. At least that would actually give the athletes a real gold prize for their hard work, and for the amount of hard work and training they go through I think they deserve it.
have you noticed how one of the biggest sponsors in olympics are those kind of products that had NOTHING to do with getting those people up to olympics shape?
I mean beer, candies, hell even mc donalds is a sponsor this year.
asapscience already covered all this
Another way to look at it -- substituting in cheaper metal (though silver is still a precious metal) allows for bigger, flashier metals, than they could afford to make if it was actually solid gold.
Not too surprising really, gold is bloody expensive. I always figured they were gilded. Those Sochi Medals look pretty rad though, I like the design this year
SOLID GOLD OLIVE BRANCHES!
I have to say these are the most beautiful medals in the world
Just give the winners gift cards. Suppliers of cards would be olympic sponsors. "This event is brought to you by Starbucks and Itunes."
50 million is a drop in the bucket. When you think of how many companies that want to buy in to be part of this event. At least if you win the Super Bowl you get diamonds and gold.
Medals over all, not just Olympics, are all about the achievement and not about the medal itself. The medal is just a representation of the hardwork you've made. Sure it'd be nice if it were gold, but what matters is what that medals represents. Also happens with trophies...
But most medals are round/cyllinder so does that mean you've been going in circles?
anter176 lol, I don´t think that´s what I meant.
Kyon Zhang Just messin' with you
I never understood the point of taking home a medal. Wouldn't it be cheaper and more symbolic if said person had a small statue built to be placed somewhere everyone could see in their home town?
I had a feeling they were fake, considering how expensive the medal to make them is.
As dawn goes down today, nothing gold can stay.
why does it feel that you're copying ideas? You should've put "Bibliography:ASAPScience"
Olympic wreaths would be amazing, though it could be harder to customise for each new Olympic game I think :)
lol Yes, lets go back to gold olive branches
Does anyone know how much the sort of gold medals are worth just for the metal they are made of?
Considering that I'm not likely to ever be an olympic athlete or pay any part for an olympic medal, I don't think I'm really in the position to make that call. Beyond that I don't really care.
Silver's still more precious than Gold since we've destroyed most of our silver supplies ever mined in industry
The spot price on gold is about USD1255/oz and for silver silver about USD19.6/oz (5/2/2014 prices), so gold is still a lot more expensive then silver.
h9kh9k price is an illusion, price ≠ value, Silver is rarer above ground than gold and is about 50x cheaper… IMHO that's a good buy :)
+DNews For comparison's sake, what's the average profit, or profit of the city that hosted the last Olympic Games, in total (ticket sales, food, etc etc)
Omg, Anthony. "Buckazoids", was that a Space Quest reference mate? :)
Make them solid and real, just much smaller.
Discuss about Bill Nye's Debate with Ken Ham
The medals this year have some of the meteor that fell over Russia last year put in them. Which is probably worth more than the same weight in gold.
I once almost made it to the Olympics in gymnastics, I wanted that gold. But now that I find that is not solid gold, I now think that is not worth all of the effort I used to put in , just to be conned. I am glad I did not make it, just to be conned.
I think it would be more neat to get a medal based off the host country's personal precious metals or a medal that is made out of something precious to the country.
No it dosent bug me.
The only medal that really bugged me was the "plastic" circle design.
For example Torino 2006 medals sucked because on TV they looked like cheap plastic rings from afar...
Yeah sorry already knew about this from minute earth
already knew ths due to logic. they're to greedy to waste money on actually pure gold medals. thought i did thought it was gold plated copper. but infact its gold plated silver for the most part. if an athlete sold their gold medal for money, they're either greedy or really needing money badly. so there should be no reasons to sell them
I heard this year on the 15th the gold metals will also have some of the meteorite in them from the rock that crashed there last year. I think that's a cooler metal then just solid gold and it would be cool to have some unique metals in the medals from all over the world.
Love the Strong Bad shirt!!
I'd have been shocked if they were solid gold-how silly. On the other hand, I would NOT have been shocked if those at Sochi were plastic. The Russion military has long been nuts about medals, and for about thirty years has used plastic.
Spoiler: No.
This video is awesome I didn't know about this!
At least it answers my curiosity.
lol these countries hosting the Olympics could afford the gold. we should atleast do like 50% gold c mon now
It is not all about money, it is about resources as well. There isn't infinite amount of gold on earth.
Mikael Murstam i know that but this isnt a problem with the amount of gold lmao its probably a combination of the counties being cheep and some other factors. there is more then enough gold to make a couple hundred medals every 2 years
The medals will probably never be sold or recycled which means that less and less gold will be in circulation and the price will go up. That is not a sustainable model. The less rare earth metals in medals the better.
true but gold is produced every year and the medals will only be using a small fraction of the medal. it just isnt going to affect the world gold economy very much. especially with them only being like 25-50% gold. can we agree that a 4% gold medal is sad for being one of the best in the world at something you trained your entire life for?
Actually I would be glad that they weren't worth a lot of money because you would be tempted to sell it. You don't attend OS to get an expensive medal, you want to get a medal because of what it represent. I think it would be sad if a lot of money were locked into the medal that you couldn't use. I believe they should get price money instead. They don't, and that is sad though.
We should still make the medals the same but bring bake the olive branches that will be made of actual
Bronze silver and gold completely. That would pretty sweet.
if you're not using solid gold, you might as call them "prettied up silver medals" silver and bronze. gold is gold, if yousay something is gold, it's only gold.
Olive branches would be so much more symbolical and cool looking.
I think plated works. But they should be completely plated a couple times with a pure element.
Olive branches were used of an actual prize in ancient Greece so that athletes won't be so full of themselves after the branches decompose. And no, the branches weren't made of gold.
Make them out of Plutonium. What could possibly go wrong? :P
lol
I'd say real gold... 40 million ain't Alot... Totally worth it. Aren't there only like 30 Olympic sports? I know the core are now 25...so could 25 medals be really that expensive?
+Gitonga Mwaniki 40 million is alot for the one metal that backs the entire global economy
Then can always ditch the medals concept and maybe make something like the superbowl rings, although that may be even more expensive.
who wants a ring for being the best in the world . medals or olive branches are so much better.
No it doesn't bug me coz it's what the medal represents, not what it's metal value is
I was seriously considering going for an Olympic gold medal, but now that I know that there is very little gold in it, I'm now thinking I'll just go make lunch instead.
isn't there a little piece of space rock in the sochi medals? just the space rock is worth, like, a lot.
I heard that each medal will have a piece of the meteorite that fell last year in it.
winner get's a silver olive branch, second get's a copper one, and thrid get's a real one
Olive branch of course. We have a reason for that. It was a competition about peace and pride. When the Olympics took place in Greece the war between city had to stop till the end of the games. In our days the don't care not about the values but for the humans also. It's all about money and the new world order. Happy that I'm Greek and grow up with values.
gold was used on all the metals last Olympics?
winning in any sport isn't about the value of the prize its about the honor of winning it
Seriously Dnews intro theme is so annoying. They need to change it .
already knew this
Vsauce thought me this.
I think we should hand out certificates with a personal message from a high positioned government official...