* Gold is a member of the transition metals family:
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GOLD / Au / 79
A soft, shiny, malleable, ductile, bright yellow metal that is
highly resistant to corrosion. Its symbol Au comes from the old
Latin name for the metal, "aurum". Only one isotope is found in
nature, Au<197/79>; it is stable.
atomic weight: 196.96655
abundance: 73rd
density: 19.3 gm/cc
melting point: 1,064 C
boiling point: 2,808 C
valence: 1 <3>
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Gold is of course the best-known of all precious metals, though it isn't the rarest or most expensive. It is produced at a level of a few thousand tonnes a year. Most is used in jewelry, but it is also used in electrical applications as thin-film electrical contacts. It is the most malleable of all metals and can be laid down in very thin films; an ultrathin transparent film is laid down on the canopies of some combat aircraft to provide a conductive layer that keeps radio energy from penetrating, either to block high-powered jamming beams produced by the aircraft that could fry the crew, or enemy radar beams that could glint off the irregular interior of the cockpit to give a "bright" radar echo.
