3 Quick Ways

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benjamen

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http://www.opencurrency.com/3-quick-ways-to-help-tell-real-silver-from-fake-silver/

I personally had to go try the ice test! I placed an ice cube on a one ounce silver coin and compared it to another ice cube placed on a normal plate. The ice on the silver definately melted faster at first, but slowed its rate of melt once the silver cooled down to match the temperature of the ice. This would be interesting to try with a large bar of silver to see just how much faster the ice melts compared to the control ice.
 
Interesting. I hadn't considered that possibility before.
 
Silver is one of the more thermally conductive things out there. So the real test would be to put the edge of the coin to the ice, and see how quick it got cold where you're holding it. But copper will pass that test too - not much difference.

If you get your hands on some pyrolytic graphite, it's so conductive you can cut an ice cube like it was a sharp knife through balsa, but it'll freeze the crap out of your fingers fast doing it.
 
If you get your hands on some pyrolytic graphite, it's so conductive you can cut an ice cube like it was a sharp knife through balsa, but it'll freeze the crap out of your fingers fast doing it.

That sounds fascinating... I think that I need to find some :)
 
Here's a link, scroll down.
http://www.scitoyscatalog.com/category/M.html

They sell pyrolytic graphite and other fun toys there, not the cheapest, but convenient.

You can also make the stuff if you have a vacuum system, a plate you can heat about red hot in there, and some hydrocarbon gas (most of them work). You just heat the plate in the vacuum, add some gas flow through at a few millibars pressure, and wait (and wait, which is why the stuff is expensive in bulk). This stuff is actually layered graphene, that substance that gets so much play these days in the science press releases. You can strip off mono-molecular layers (pure graphene) with scotch tape, then dissolve the tape with solvent.
 
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