In chapter 13 of the Disappearing Spoon titled "Elements as Money" The author Kien talks about the value of the elements in terms of money and says the difference between the items that are sold more or less because of the value of it uses. It tells a myth of Midas, the king of what is now called Turkey, Phrygia and how he had kept the ability of being able to convert anything that would touch in gold. He was not able to control this power of his and eventually turned his own daughter into gold in a hug. Obviously, this story is not true, but there is a reason to know why these stories are told about him. After the story has been said, we are given some information about the zinc element and the affiliations between brass and copper. Then we
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Today, we use money from the paper that is made of cotton and coins made of zinc, copper and nickel, but back then people use metals like gold and silver as currency. The author continues to narrate stories about the good and pursuit of gold over the centuries, and how scientists and gold hunters have come up with new ways to prove real gold, and how many people trying to find gold have been frustrated. The chapter finally ends with how money means energy in the modern age.
Then the author continues to talks about his ruling and the age of gold and bronze, seeing how the people of 3000 B.C. could not see the difference between bronze and other zinc metals in them. Here was a story of a great gold rush in Australia, in which the gold was so easy to get that you could just pick up from the ground. However, once the population grew and mining became most important along with construction to meet the growing need for housing, it became clear that resources had huge inflation prices. The author also mentions the craze the gold rush brings. It mentions the huge gold rush in the …show more content…
One new thing I learned was that aluminum was once very valuable. This element is part of our world, used in our everyday life so learning this new information was a learning experience for me. Overall this chapter was bit a long but really nice to read and the information it contained was good to know. I enjoyed reading the information about myth of Midas and how he is connected to reality after all he had always thought that his life was purely fake and that everything was done. I also enjoyed learning about how precious gold was and how it was to control the lives of many in the world. Not only did money control the lives of many in the past, but it does not control the lives of many today in our time. This chapter has been enjoyable and I would recommend this chapter to those students who are interested in learning more about the history of the
Today, we use money from the paper that is made of cotton and coins made of zinc, copper and nickel, but back then people use metals like gold and silver as currency. The author continues to narrate stories about the good and pursuit of gold over the centuries, and how scientists and gold hunters have come up with new ways to prove real gold, and how many people trying to find gold have been frustrated. The chapter finally ends with how money means energy in the modern age.
Then the author continues to talks about his ruling and the age of gold and bronze, seeing how the people of 3000 B.C. could not see the difference between bronze and other zinc metals in them. Here was a story of a great gold rush in Australia, in which the gold was so easy to get that you could just pick up from the ground. However, once the population grew and mining became most important along with construction to meet the growing need for housing, it became clear that resources had huge inflation prices. The author also mentions the craze the gold rush brings. It mentions the huge gold rush in the …show more content…
One new thing I learned was that aluminum was once very valuable. This element is part of our world, used in our everyday life so learning this new information was a learning experience for me. Overall this chapter was bit a long but really nice to read and the information it contained was good to know. I enjoyed reading the information about myth of Midas and how he is connected to reality after all he had always thought that his life was purely fake and that everything was done. I also enjoyed learning about how precious gold was and how it was to control the lives of many in the world. Not only did money control the lives of many in the past, but it does not control the lives of many today in our time. This chapter has been enjoyable and I would recommend this chapter to those students who are interested in learning more about the history of the