Goldbeating

High school (ages 12+)
Art & Creativity

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/goldbeating

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the material composition?Typically 22-24 karat gold alloy, chosen for malleability
2. What is the atomic structure?Face-centered cubic crystal structure facilitates high ductility
3. Where did people first start beating gold?Archaeologists think people in Mesopotamia were beating gold as early as the 4th millennium BCE. Later, Egypt and the Near East made the technique even better.
4. How thin can gold leaf get?With many hammer blows and special paper between the gold, the leaf can be as thin as 0.1 micrometers, which is about 4 millionths of an inch.

Malleability: The ability of a metal to be hammered or pressed into thin sheets without breaking.
Ductility: The ability of a metal to be stretched or drawn into thin wires without breaking.
Karat: A unit of purity for gold, where 24 karat is pure gold.