UKC

I guess they are not made of solid gold? So anybody know what they are actually made of, presumably some metal coated with gold?

In reply to Al Evans:

I remember the Bronze medals at the London Olympics were only worth about 3 quid in raw materials (being mostly copper)

Think the golds were gold + silver + copper, silvers are silver + copper and bronzes are copper and zinc

In reply to Al Evans:

I assumed they were all just coloured foil with chocolate inside.

In reply to Al Evans:

What does it matter?the value and meaning have sod all to do with the price.

In reply to Al Evans:

I'd guess most people don't go into an Olympic calculating the scrap value of their medal?
Why are interested? Got one in the attic?

In reply to andyathome:



No, I just wondered, am I not allowed to do that?

In reply to nickinscottishmountains:


Out of interest! Doesn't seem like an unreasonable question. Al isn't the only person ever to ask it, otherwise I wouldn't have known the answer.

In reply to Al Evans:
I heard something on the radio that the Commonwealth golds are pure silver then gold plated. I think they were claiming these were the first medals made purely of precious metal in a long time. The last pure gold medals were in about 1900.

In reply to Al Evans:

This might answer your question:

http://chemistry.about.com/od/metalsalloys/f/How-Much-Is-An-Olympic-Gold-Me...

In reply to Al Evans:

'Course you are.

In reply to The New NickB:
Well fair enough but what more is the question that you and others ask? What more is there to winning gold or silver or bronze in the commonwealth games? You win gold or silver or bronze and you've won gold or silver or bronze, that's it. Monetary/metal value is irrelevant.

In reply to Al Evans:

I think Nobel prizes are still made of gold. Not 24 carat, but definitely more than half by weight.

Handy if you ever need to hide one from the Nazis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_de_Hevesy#World_War_II_and_beyond
Though I guess that trick would work with most metals. It's a cool story though.

In reply to Thickhead:
This is interesting too.

At work I drew Singapore, and I get a prize if they are the top medal I winners but that looks unlikely.
However, I was not aware that if their athletes get a CG medal they get £40k
( OG they get a million )

Lots of interesting analysis here.
http://sportsscientists.com/2014/07/commonwealth-calibration/

Listening tonight about Scotland getting more medals than before, it then emerged that there are lots more medals on offer than previously , and also as the home nation, you can apparently cherry pick the events ,so you can select sports that you are strong in,and exclude your weaker sports.

Not then surprising that the home nations do better, maybe not so much to do with the home support as I first thought.

In reply to nickinscottishmountains:

You seem bothered by monetary value, nobody else is.

In reply to Jim C:

Listening tonight about Scotland getting more medals than before, it then emerged that there are lots more medals on offer than previously , and also as the home nation, you can apparently cherry pick the events ,so you can select sports that you are strong in,and exclude your weaker sports.

So who picked Curling for the winter olympics?

In reply to The New NickB:


Expecting some sort of value in the medals seems reasonable. Yellow plastic tokens wouldn't quite be the same, would they? Not perhaps the monetary value but value as an artistic object.

In reply to Al Evans:

They had an interview on the radio with the guy that designed the medals for Glasgow, he said they were all made by local jewellers and were all subtly different. The Bronze ones were made from bronze, the Silvers from silver and the Golds from silver with a gold coating,


Chris

In reply to MG:

Perhaps better directed at the other Nick.

In reply to Al Evans:

For 2012...
"It takes eight tonnes of gold, silver and copper to make the 4,700 Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals for the Games. "

http://www.riotinto.com/fromminetomedal/

Cheers
LD

In reply to Lurking Dave:
Next question, why are running tracks always anticlockwise

In reply to goldmember:


This link might answer your question:

http://bit.ly/1zSefrB

In reply to Lurking Dave:


Errrr thanks but if that's metric tons, and if all that metal went into the medals [PS I didn't read the Rio Tinto link] each one of the 4,700 medals would weigh 1.7 kilos... is there something wrong with my maths?? Errrrr

In reply to goldmember:



In the days of ultradistance track races, and I mean ultradistance here, up to 6 day continuous events (rest the sabbath), the direction was changed every so many laps so one leg was not stressed more than another.

In reply to goldmember:

not in the southern hemisphere

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

I think they do?

In reply to Al Evans:
Incidently the record for a six day race is held by an Attercliffe lad (Sheffield) from 1888. despite many more recent attempts to beat his distance (set at Madison Square Gardens) it remains at 623.75 miles.
His name was George Littlewood.