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when you think of gold you probably think of jewelry gold bars or even if

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you're old like me goldschlager but gold is actually extremely common and

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important in electronics as well you've probably seen it on contacts for

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everything from RAM to HDMI to memory cards or these CPU pillars from

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ltdstore.com they're actually way softer than i never touched one before

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but why is it used so widely i mean copper does a fine job of conducting

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electricity so why do we need to use gold well you're right about copper but

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gold is superior in some key ways that make it a really good choice for certain

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applications for one gold is very non-reactive and resists corrosion and

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tarnishing even though gold is slightly less conductive than copper it still

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offers electrons extremely little resistance and you don't have to worry

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about it reacting with chemicals in the environment as much as you do with copper which is why this baby is still

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looking good and considering that most electronic components use low voltages

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and current levels a small amount of tarnish on the conducting material can

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have a big impact on signal integrity so for intricate connections many

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manufacturers don't take their chances with anything other than gold this leads

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well into the next point gold is a soft incredibly ductile metal it's very easy

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to work into any shape and size you might need and although copper can

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obviously be drawn into wire gold is even softer and can be stretched thinner

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making it ideal when you think about how small some of these connections are

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we're talking only a few micrometers meaning gold's softness combined with

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its relative non-reactivity make it a great choice in fact gold is very

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popular for what's called wire bonding the act of connecting a semiconductor

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die to the package that holds it like what you might see on your typical

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desktop CPU gold can carry a lot of heat without melting or cracking so it won't

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hurt your performance just because it's inside the hot environment of your CPU

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package this is especially important in automotive applications our cars are

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becoming packed with more and more electronics some of which control critical systems you don't want an

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autonomous driving feature to fail when you're going down the highway at 70

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miles an hour so gold is used because it's resistant to the thermal and

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environmental hazards your car can encounter while it's in motion

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additionally gold is very easy for modern manufacturing devices to bond

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quickly so it allows chips to roll off the line in large numbers but gold is

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also useful for applications you might actually see every day you know how more premium

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cables are sold with gold plated connectors although this doesn't do

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anything to make your signal faster it does keep the connector from wearing

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down as quickly although gold is a soft metal it actually provides good

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resistance to wear and tear when it's alloyed with a small amount of another

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metal such as nickel okay okay i get it

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gold is awesome we love gold but it's super expensive right

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how can we even afford our gadgets if all this gold is in all of them

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well it turns out that you don't need a whole lot of gold for most electronic

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applications since it's mainly used for small intricate connections your typical

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smartphone contains less than a dollars worth of gold so even though it's

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obviously more expensive than copper its advantages still make it the most

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sensible choice in many situations but one thing to keep in mind is that

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unfortunately not very much of the total gold used in electronics is ever

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reclaimed this means that the cost of gold in manufacturing can and has gone

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up over time so if you've got an old pc or phone that you're not selling and

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just need to dispose of remember to recycle it properly and to help keep the

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price of gold under control that's my psa for today and remember that those

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cash for gold places won't accept your old motherboard i've tried big thank you

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to ifixit for sponsoring today's video ifixit makes compact tool kits with all

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the essential bits to fix small electronics minnow has 16 steel driver

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bits that work with most laptops desktops and smartphones moire has 32

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bits with the additional bits for fixing things like home appliances and furniture and both have magnetic lids

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built-in sorting trays and a four millimeter swivel top driver all wrapped

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up in a canvas tool roll all tools are backed by fix this lifetime warranty so

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repair your devices today and learn more by going to ifixit.com for slash

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techwiki so thanks for watching guys if you liked this video hit like hit

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subscribe and hit us up in the comments section with your suggestions for videos

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that we should cover in the future always suck at sports