"Fool's Gold"-Pyrite Fool's Gold
Gold is a valuable thing, but if you want real gold, it is not enough to rely on a pair of discerning eyes, because "fool's gold" will blind you. The mineralogical name of "Fool's Gold" is pyrite, its chemical composition is FeS2, its color is light golden yellow, and it suddenly looks like gold. Strong metallic luster, striped green and black, opaque. The crystal form is usually a cube, a pentagonal dodecahedron or a combination of the two. No cleavage. The hardness is 6-6.5, and the specific gravity is about 5.0. How to distinguish "fool's gold" from real gold? As long as you draw it on the unglazed white porcelain board, you will see the streaks (that is, the powder left on the white porcelain board), and the truth will be clear. The stripes of gold ore are golden yellow, and the stripes of pyrite are green and black. In addition, when weighed by hand, gold is particularly heavy, because the specific gravity of natural gold is 15.6- 18.3, while pyrite is only 4.9-5.2. "Fool gold" is the main mineral raw material for extracting sulfur and manufacturing sulfuric acid in industry. It is also a very cheap ancient gem. In Victorian England (A.D. 1837- 190 1), people liked to decorate this gem with special shape and ornamental value. It can be used not only for grinding precious stones, but also as a base for jewelry, jade and other handicrafts. The world-famous producing areas are the United States, Germany and so on. Once upon a time, there was an old rich man who loved money as much as his life and forced long-term workers to work for him all day. One day, the landlord personally went up the mountain to monitor whether the long-term workers were lazy at work. Suddenly, he found Huang Chengcheng's "gold" all over the floor in a valley, which made him ecstatic. The landlord greedily filled his pockets with "gold" until there was no place to put it, and then ran home to hide. Since then, the landlord has also started work. Every night, the landlord always goes up the hill in the dark like a thief, carrying bags of "gold" home until there is nowhere to hide at home. One day, the landlord picked a piece of "gold" as big as a nail and went to the bank to exchange money. The people in the bank looked at the "gold", cursed the landlord as the first fool in Tian Zi and threw it out. It turns out that this is not "gold" at all; This is an ore called pyrite. Pyrite ore has a shiny appearance as beautiful as real gold, so this money addict was taken in by a big trick. Therefore, people call pyrite ore "fool's gold". In fact, "fool's gold" is just the same as gold in appearance and color, and we can easily distinguish it. We only need to weigh the ore in our hands, because the weight of gold in the same volume is three times that of pyrite. If we draw gold and iron ore on the touchstone (unglazed porcelain plates or glass can be used instead), the stripes left by gold are golden yellow, while the yellow iron ore leaves green and black. If we had mastered this method of discrimination, you wouldn't have become a "fool". Although pyrite is called iron ore, it cannot be used to make iron. The main component of pyrite is iron disulfide (FeS2), and the sulfur that is difficult to remove is the enemy of steel. Iron with too much sulfur is fragile and easily broken, especially when heated. However, although pyrite can't make iron, it is a good raw material for refining sulfuric acid. Because both iron and sulfur in pyrite will react with oxygen. So what? %C