• Question: Is it possible to turn lead into gold?

    Asked by aka Agent Jellybean to Anna, Hayley, Iain, Rebecca on 23 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Iain Bethune

      Iain Bethune answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      Not easily, but it has been done. Lead has 82 protons and gold has 79, so to complete the transformation you need to force Lead (which is very stable) to release 3 protons, and doing this takes so much energy that it costs more than the value of the gold you obtain at the end!

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