Is gold really gold because I hear that there is a lot of fools gold around?

Question

Is gold really gold because I hear that there is a lot of fools gold around?

Answer 1

Gold is definitely gold.  Fools Gold is a completely different material (iron sulfide), which doesn't really even look like gold, and doesn't have any properties that are really close to gold.  It is just something that has a brassy yellowish color at times and people with little experience get fooled into thinking it is gold.

Answer 2

Fools gold only LOOKs like gold. It doesnt have ANY of the other properties.... You cant make nice jewellery out of it...

Answer 3

Gold is gold (Au), fools gold is pyrite (FeS2), and I like to joke that biotite is idiots gold.  Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) can also be confused with pyrite.  They all have different chemical and physical properties.  

Answer 4

Experts can say by scratching it in a stone. But normally if you are used to handle the gold you can easily find by its weight.Gold is much heavier than fools gold

Answer 5

Gordon Brown should be able to answer that one.  He is the fool that sold half of ours.  Did I say SOLD?.............no he gave it away at rock bottom prices!

Answer 6

If you have any question about something being real gold or not, take a chunk of it and weigh it, then measure the volume.  By measuring mass/volume (i.e. density) it is pretty clear that gold has a density pretty close to that of lead.   This is basically how Archimedes in his bath discovered a way to determine if the crown made by the goldsmith for the Greek King had short-changed him on the gold that was supposed to be present.  Gold is much heavier than most other metals.   By weighing the crown and determining its volume by dunking it in a cylinder of water and measuring the change in water level, Archimedes was able to incriminate the goldsmith.  The goldsmith promptly lost his head.  

Fool's gold is iron pyrite, and while it has a gold appearance, when you scratch it on white porcelain will give a dark green "streak".  It also has a definite crystalline structure, whereas native gold is pretty amorphous.

Answer 7

gold is gold only, as people mix some metals in it to make it little affordable like that