What would happen if I put solid gold in the microwave?

[Landon Caeli]

Would it spark or melt?

 

[Albion]

Pretty sure it would spark, and I doubt that it would be hot enough to melt it.

 

[Petros2015]

It's pretty conductive and has a low melting point - I would guess a lot of both.

 

[Rion]

Same thing that'd happen with any other sort of metal, except gold is a really, really good conductor.

 

[jardiniere]

Depends on how many pointy corners your gold piece has-the microwave-excited electrons in the metal want to leave, and take the thin pointy bits to escape. Sparking from metal points can damage the surface of the microwave's interior. Otherwise, just know that metal's electrons get very movable when exposed to microwaves, and metal can get very hot. But I don't know if they can get metal to melt, since microwaves are tuned to excite water and fats the most.

I wonder if you could melt metal in a double walled ceramic container containing water? More likely it would explode the double walled container before melting the metal inside it though.

 

[drjean]

You mean in a container, right, so the waves don't bounce off the metal and burn up the oven? What do your searches say?

 

[Petros2015]

ANTIGRAVITY!!!

 

[jardiniere]

You mean in a container, right, so the waves don't bounce off the metal and burn up the oven? What do your searches say?

Directed at me? I didn't find anything like that in searches. I just don't know enough about ceramics to make an educated guess, other that they are able to withstand incredibly high temperatures. I've melted small bits of metal in ceramic jars in labs, and that's the actual full extent of my experience. What I don't know is if ceramic is even affected by microwaves. I don't think it might be, so it would have to contain something that could be affected by microwaves (like water), and have the water's temperature melt the metal inside the bowl of the ceramic container.

 

[jayem]

For the record, the melting point of gold depends on the fineness. Most all of the gold used in modern jewelry and coinage are alloys, with copper, nickel, silver, or other metals. The greater the proportion of other metals, the lower the melting point. So 18K gold melts at a lower temp than pure, 24K gold. And 14K gold melts lower still.

 

[GeorgeJ]

What would happen if I put solid gold in the microwave?

Try it out and let us know what happens.

You might want to go ahead and put a microwave on your Best Buy or Amazon wish list first.

 

[grasping the after wind]

Why would anyone a want to?

 

[GeorgeJ]

A cheap smelting pot would be better than buying a new microwave when your "experiment" goes awry.

 

[bhsmte]

Would it spark or melt?

Give it a try and let us know.