Hey there! Have you ever seen something shiny and gold-colored, like a trophy or a cool Minecraft pickaxe? These things might look like gold, but they’re not real gold. Real gold is a special and valuable material that people have been fascinated by for a long time.
Real gold is different from things that just look gold. It’s very valuable and costs a lot of money. Imagine a coin made of real gold. It’s worth over $1,000! That’s because gold is rare and hard to find. If it were easy to find, it wouldn’t be so expensive.
Gold isn’t something we can make in a factory. Instead, it has to be found in nature. People dig it out of the Earth, often in the form of gold nuggets or tiny gold flakes. Gold miners sometimes find these flakes in the gravel at the bottom of rivers. Finding even a small piece of gold is really tough, which is why it’s so valuable.
In the past, when people found gold in places like Alaska, California, and Australia, it caused a Gold Rush. This means lots of people rushed to these places hoping to find gold and get rich quickly. Most of the gold has been found and turned into things like coins and jewelry. If we put all the gold ever found together, it would only fill about two swimming pools!
Have you ever heard of buried treasure? Sometimes, people find hidden treasures filled with gold coins. A few years ago, a couple in California found a bunch of old metal cans filled with gold coins while walking near their home. These coins were worth over $10,000,000! Imagine finding something like that!
Gold is amazing because it’s rare and valuable. It’s not something we can make; it’s something we find. Who knows, maybe there’s hidden treasure near where you live! Keep exploring and stay curious about the world around you. There are always new mysteries to discover!
Gold Hunt at Home: Organize a treasure hunt in your home or backyard. Hide small, shiny objects like coins or gold-colored paper clips. Create a simple map or give clues to help find the “gold.” After the hunt, discuss how finding real gold is much harder and why it’s so valuable.
Gold in Everyday Life: Take a walk around your neighborhood or look around your home to find items that are gold-colored. Make a list or draw pictures of these items. Discuss with a friend or family member whether these items are made of real gold or just look like gold. Talk about why real gold is used in some items and not others.
Imagine a Gold Rush: Pretend you are living during a Gold Rush. Write a short story or draw a comic strip about your adventure. What would you pack for your journey? How would you feel if you found gold? Share your story or comic with your class or family and discuss what you learned about the excitement and challenges of a Gold Rush.
**Sanitized Transcript:**
(ringing notification) – Hi, it’s Doug Gold. Some people are fascinated by gold. They love its appearance. I have a few items here that look gold, like this Minecraft pickaxe, a trophy, and even this little nugget I picked up at a rock shop. You might recognize it as fool’s gold. It’s not real gold, but you get the idea. Someone named Janvi has a question about gold. Let’s give her a call now. (ringing notification) – Hi Doug! – Hi, Janvi. – I have a question for you. How is gold made? – That’s a great question. Look around you. You can probably find something that looks like it’s gold too, like a gold fidget spinner, a trophy, or even a doorknob. But all of these things are just gold-colored. They’re not real gold. Real gold is its own material. If you want to find actual gold, chances are it’s going to be something more expensive, like maybe one of your parents has a real gold necklace or a gold ring. These cost a lot more money than just something gold-colored. That’s the thing about real gold. It’s a really valuable material. It’s worth a lot of money. One ounce of real gold, which is about the size of a coin, is worth, well, what would you guess? $100? Nope. $500? Nope. One ounce of gold is worth over $1000. Think about that. It’s one thing to find a penny or a nickel lying on the ground. Imagine if you found a coin like this on the sidewalk. But where does real gold come from? Is it something we can make? What do you think? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss. Okay, you ready? People who work with metal can take a piece of gold and heat it, then shape it into what they want, like a gold coin or a piece of gold jewelry. But that’s always starting out with a piece of gold to begin with. Gold isn’t something that we can make out of some other material. Instead, gold is something that has to be found or dug out of the Earth, usually in the form of gold nuggets or sometimes as little gold flakes, which gold miners can find in the gravel along the bottom of a river. And to find even a tiny flake is incredibly difficult. If it were any easier to find, gold wouldn’t be worth so much. That’s a big part of why gold is so expensive. There just isn’t that much of it to be found anywhere on Earth. The few places where people have found gold have created a Gold Rush, like in Alaska, California, and Australia, where over a hundred years ago, people started finding small bits of gold on the ground. Very quickly, lots of people rushed in to try to find what gold they could and get rich fast. Most of the gold has now been found in these places and turned into gold coins and jewelry. Even then, if we add up all the gold in the world that has ever been found—necklaces, coins, gold bars, you name it—we think it would fill the space of just two swimming pools. That’s it for the entire world. That’s all the gold there is. Still, what about stories of buried treasure? A treasure chest filled with gold coins? Could you ever find something like that? Believe it or not, these things are real. A few years ago, a couple living in California was out for a walk near their home when one of them noticed a rusted metal can sticking up out of the ground. It wasn’t a wooden chest, but unbelievably, it turned out to be a bunch of old metal cans, each filled with real gold coins. It’s thought that these gold coins were buried by someone after the California Gold Rush. For some reason, the person who buried their treasure forgot about it or maybe they passed away before telling anyone where it was. The couple that found the coins got to keep them, and all together, they were worth over $10,000,000. This isn’t even the first time something like this has happened. Just last week, in the basement of an old theater in Italy, someone found a jar filled with hundreds of ancient gold coins. Could there be hidden treasure buried somewhere near where you live? You never know. So, in summary, real gold isn’t something that’s made; it’s found and incredibly rare, which is part of why it’s so valuable. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Janvi, for asking it. Now for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and found three questions submitted to me that I’m thinking about answering. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: how does a compass know which way is north? Why do people from England sound different than people from America? Or, how does toothpaste clean your teeth? So submit your vote when the video is over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
