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"Just hide them! I wonder why Nobel laureate Niels Bohr and future Nobel laureate George de Hevesy didn't think of that." Because they are geniuses and probabl
by edblarney 10y ago
"Just hide them! I wonder why Nobel laureate Niels Bohr and future Nobel laureate George de Hevesy didn't think of that."
Because they are geniuses and probably over-think everything.
It would take 20 minutes to find a spot to hide them, and they wouldn't be recovered for 1000 years if people weren't the wiser. But it would be pointless because you can remove the markings with any hard objects, basically instantly.
The Nazis were not 'hunting' for this stuff, even if they were, it wouldn't be worth any effort.
Step 1) take a hammer to them and remove the markings. Gold is soft and malleable. Evidence = gone. 5 minutes.
If you're worried about having arbitrary bits of unmarked gold:
+ Throw it in the garbage next door
+ Throw it in a bag in the harbour
+ Bury them in the lane or garden around the corner
+ Throw it in the sewer
It's just a couple of small bits of unmarked gold at that point. Wherever it's found - or not - it's meaningless.
- pmoriarty 10y ago"Because they are geniuses and probably over-think everything." There are some anecdotes to the contrary. Enrico Fermi famously estimated the strength of the first atomic bomb by "dropping from about six feet small pieces of paper before, during and after the passage of the blast wave." Richard Feynman tested the integrity of an o-ring which he concluded must have caused the Challenger disaster by dropping the o-ring in to a glass of cold water and noticing its deformation. These are but the first two examples that spring to mind of simple solutions found by "geniuses". I'd also categorize the way the gold medals were hidden as another simple (and brilliant) solution. It would be interesting to read a compilation of such anecdotes, if one exists.