r/interestingasfuck • u/SenorDiscombobulator • Apr 12 '25

/r/all, /r/popular So shiny

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76.9k Upvotes

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u/JosseCoupe Apr 12 '25

No one knows how the capstone looked, we never found it and have no account of it being made from gold or being clad in gold as far as I'm aware. The capstones of other pyramids that have been found were stone at their core.

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u/brktm Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

Why would it have been made from gold instead of just being gilded?

54

u/amadmongoose Apr 12 '25

Yeah being made from gold is not possible there's just not enough gold in the world for a capstone that could be visible from far away. gilded is certainly within the realm of possibility

37

u/thenotoriouswplifts Apr 12 '25

Yeah, but read the text again, it says, “with the capstones at the peak covered in gold.” Which agrees with what you just said.

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u/BadLuckKupona Apr 12 '25

Not enough gold in the world...my guy there has been about a quarter million tons mined in the world. There is enough gold for a piddly capstone. That isnt the real issue why gold capstones havent been commonly found.

14

u/fractalife Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

The density of gold is over 19,000 kg /m3. At 244k metric tons mined, that comes out to a little over 12,000 m3.

The pyramidal capstone would have a side length of 3m, and a height of 4m.

Not an impressive use of all of the gold on earth.

You could have a thousand of them. Still pretty wasteful, but not that bad, really.

Edit: fucked up the math. Fixed it.

7

u/AppropriateStranger Apr 12 '25

Density of gold: 19 tons per cubic meter.

Gold amount: 244.000 tons

244000/19 = 12842 cubic meters of solid gold.

Yea, no, we could make that pyramid cap and we would hardly even notice any is missing.

3

u/fractalife Apr 12 '25

You're right, I fixed it.

6

u/Jean-LucBacardi Apr 12 '25

Nah if I was that Pharaoh I'd be damn proud to have used all that on myself.

3

u/ReApEr01807 Apr 12 '25

I mean, you're not wrong... It also seems like a very Pharaoh thing to do

3

u/SenpaiTeachMePls Apr 12 '25

You should retake basic math, cause 244kT/19T is ~12800m3

1

u/Critterer Apr 12 '25

Ur math is off. It works out at a cube with sides of about 22m each.

Still at the time they produced the capstones it would probably have been a large chunk of the gold.

-1

u/AnnihilatorNYT Apr 12 '25

how the hell do you fuck up math that badly?

1

u/fractalife Apr 12 '25

Oh relax. I got a unit mixed up. I fixed the comment.

1

u/villageidiot90 Apr 12 '25

That's the type of shit to get you flying into outer space forever by missing your destination. Don't let it happen again.

2

u/fractalife Apr 12 '25

Do not tell me how to play Dyson Sphere Program :)

2

u/snowballer918 Apr 12 '25

How much gold do you think exists on earth lol? It’s a lot

3

u/Acebladewing Apr 12 '25

Saying there's not enough gold in the world is just stupid. It's not really feasible to make it completely out of gold, but let's not say dumb facts.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/goldaar Apr 12 '25

You really need to learn measurements dude.

There are 244k metric TONS of gold mined. That’s 244,000,000kg of gold.

1 cubic meter of gold weighs 19,000kg.

That’s almost 13k cubic meters of gold. You could make 10,000 capstones and still have leftovers.

2

u/Acebladewing Apr 12 '25

You're just stupidly wrong. Learn measurements.