106 ms·

For context, iridium is probably the densest material you’d want for a paperweight [1] but it’s rarer and more expensive than tungsten or platinum. [1]: https:

For context, iridium is probably the densest material you’d want for a paperweight [1] but it’s rarer and more expensive than tungsten or platinum. [1]: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-heaviest-metal-I-can-legally-make-a-paperweight-out-of?share=1 https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-heaviest-metal-I-can-legal...

Taniwha 5y ago
https://luciteria.com/metal-cubes/iridium-metal-cube-9995 https://luciteria.com/metal-cubes/iridium-metal-cube-9995
- BizarroLand 5y ago
  $9,000 for a 1cm cube. That's "winning the lotto impulse purchase" level for me.
  - anonporridge 5y ago
    It's not like that money disappears. Just think of it like buying gold bullion. Unlike say, a $9000 motorcycle impulse purchase, a block of raw metal should hold it's inflation adjusted value relatively well for decades and you can sell it whenever to recoup the money.
    - lacksconfidence 5y ago
      Gold bullion has a healthy market to sell back into though.I don't know the numbers, but i wouldn't be surprised if I could easily sell gold for 80% of "market" value, whereas probably closer to 20% for something like Iridium that has a very small adressable market unless I were to expend considerable effort finding someone willing to pay what it's worth.
      - tyingq 5y ago
        Platinum might be a better fit in this "really heavy" category. 21.447 grams/cc versus gold at 19.3 grams/cc.
      - anonporridge 5y ago
        You could probably sell it to just about any gold dealer, as a lot of them sell iridium bars anyway. The tools they have to verify the purity of gold also work for other metals. If not, then they would certainly have connections to find someone who will buy it. Also, you generally buy/sell on a 5-10% spread from the "spot" market price of the metal, depending on the quanitity you're dealing with. Dealers generally offer a closer price to spot when dealing with larger dollar value amounts of metal.
      - thaumasiotes 5y ago
        Iridium is commonly used in jewelry; it's one of the platinum group metals. It doesn't have the mass awareness of gold, but it's not some weird niche material either.
    - tofuahdude 5y ago
      New form of investment?
    - BurningFrog 5y ago
      Metals also survive pretty much anything, including catastrophic fires.
      - moftz 5y ago
        Gold can easily melt in a house fire. A diamond ring can turn into a puddle of gold and no diamond because it burned off
        anonporridge 5y ago
        Melted gold is just as valuable as gold jewelry, since they melt it down anyway when you sell it. It might be worth marginally less than an intact piece of gold bullion that can be resold without processing. Diamonds don't have resale value anyway. They're literally a scam.
        kadoban 5y ago
        One thing I've wondered, exactly how easy would it be to find a gold puddle after a fire anyway? I mean it's not going to vaporize or walk off on its own, but is it just going to be a little solidified glob there to pick up or what?
        dreamcompiler 5y ago
        Yes but it will probably be blackened with soot which will make it hard to find.
        tastyfreeze 5y ago
        Yes, it might flow around in the fire but it would be in the same area. A metal detector would be the fastest way to find it. Likely less time to find it solidified than looking for jewelry on a beach. Certainly less time than mining the gold. I've found aluminum globs under fires that had cans or trashed roofing thrown in. Pretty clean, since nearly everything floats on it, and easy to spot in ashes.
  - Cthulhu_ 5y ago
    I'll get myself a 10cm cube as a paper weight when I start and sell my multibillion asteroid mining startup. I mean with any luck we'll find a pure iridium asteroid and bring the thing back to earth. Iridium paperweights for everyone!
- mbreese 5y ago
  To save people some time clicking through... A 10mm cube of Iridium weighs ~21.9g. And from this source, costs $9000. From the same source, a single gram is only $275. This means that due to the difficulty in working with this very dense metal, the cost of turning the Iridium into a cube is nearly $3000 (on top of the ~$6000 for the metal itself)!
  - tyingq 5y ago
    Osmium would be heavier still (22.59 grams/cc), and a relative bargain at $1275 for the 10mm cube at the same source. Not polished/shiny though.
    - TeMPOraL 5y ago
      And, as divbzero's Quora link points out, it's going to kill you by oxidizing into a toxin when exposed to open air.
      - tyingq 5y ago
        That seems to be a concern with osmium powder, ground osmium, etc. I don't think that a cube has any handling requirements more exotic than lead solder.
        GravitasFailure 5y ago
        Less than that even. It's a noble metal and doesn't like to react under normal conditions, though hitting it with a blowtorch might ruin your day.
    - adrian_b 5y ago
      Osmium is the densest pure metal, but iridium has an almost identical density, i.e. 22.56 for Ir, vs. 22.59 for Os. The difference is far too small to give you a different feeling when holding a piece of either osmium or iridium. While osmium and iridium are the densest pure metals, there is a range of composition in the osmium-iridium alloys which has a slightly greater density than both pure osmium and pure iridium. That happens because the atomic concentration of Os is a little higher than that of Ir while the atomic mass of Ir is a little higher than that of Os. While increasing the proportion of Ir in an Os-Ir alloy from 0% to 100%, there is a range where the atomic concentration decreases slower than the average atomic mass increases, so the density of the alloy becomes greater than the density of pure osmium. At higher Ir percentages, the increase in atomic volume overcomes the increase in atomic mass, so the density becomes a little lower than for pure Os. Unlike pure osmium, an Os-Ir alloy would not be dangerous to handle. Pure osmium is slowly oxidized in air releasing the volatile and extremely dangerous osmium tetraoxide. In nature, the normal occurrence of both Os and Ir is as nuggets made of Os-Ir alloy, usually also containing ruthenium and very small quantities of rhodium.

Taniwha 5y ago

https://luciteria.com/metal-cubes/iridium-metal-cube-9995 https://luciteria.com/metal-cubes/iridium-metal-cube-9995

BizarroLand 5y ago
$9,000 for a 1cm cube. That's "winning the lotto impulse purchase" level for me.
- anonporridge 5y ago
  It's not like that money disappears. Just think of it like buying gold bullion. Unlike say, a $9000 motorcycle impulse purchase, a block of raw metal should hold it's inflation adjusted value relatively well for decades and you can sell it whenever to recoup the money.
  - lacksconfidence 5y ago
    Gold bullion has a healthy market to sell back into though.I don't know the numbers, but i wouldn't be surprised if I could easily sell gold for 80% of "market" value, whereas probably closer to 20% for something like Iridium that has a very small adressable market unless I were to expend considerable effort finding someone willing to pay what it's worth.
    - tyingq 5y ago
      Platinum might be a better fit in this "really heavy" category. 21.447 grams/cc versus gold at 19.3 grams/cc.
    - anonporridge 5y ago
      You could probably sell it to just about any gold dealer, as a lot of them sell iridium bars anyway. The tools they have to verify the purity of gold also work for other metals. If not, then they would certainly have connections to find someone who will buy it. Also, you generally buy/sell on a 5-10% spread from the "spot" market price of the metal, depending on the quanitity you're dealing with. Dealers generally offer a closer price to spot when dealing with larger dollar value amounts of metal.
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      Iridium is commonly used in jewelry; it's one of the platinum group metals. It doesn't have the mass awareness of gold, but it's not some weird niche material either.
  - tofuahdude 5y ago
    New form of investment?
  - BurningFrog 5y ago
    Metals also survive pretty much anything, including catastrophic fires.
    - moftz 5y ago
      Gold can easily melt in a house fire. A diamond ring can turn into a puddle of gold and no diamond because it burned off
      - anonporridge 5y ago
        Melted gold is just as valuable as gold jewelry, since they melt it down anyway when you sell it. It might be worth marginally less than an intact piece of gold bullion that can be resold without processing. Diamonds don't have resale value anyway. They're literally a scam.
        kadoban 5y ago
        One thing I've wondered, exactly how easy would it be to find a gold puddle after a fire anyway? I mean it's not going to vaporize or walk off on its own, but is it just going to be a little solidified glob there to pick up or what?
        dreamcompiler 5y ago
        Yes but it will probably be blackened with soot which will make it hard to find.
        tastyfreeze 5y ago
        Yes, it might flow around in the fire but it would be in the same area. A metal detector would be the fastest way to find it. Likely less time to find it solidified than looking for jewelry on a beach. Certainly less time than mining the gold. I've found aluminum globs under fires that had cans or trashed roofing thrown in. Pretty clean, since nearly everything floats on it, and easy to spot in ashes.
- Cthulhu_ 5y ago
  I'll get myself a 10cm cube as a paper weight when I start and sell my multibillion asteroid mining startup. I mean with any luck we'll find a pure iridium asteroid and bring the thing back to earth. Iridium paperweights for everyone!
mbreese 5y ago
To save people some time clicking through... A 10mm cube of Iridium weighs ~21.9g. And from this source, costs $9000. From the same source, a single gram is only $275. This means that due to the difficulty in working with this very dense metal, the cost of turning the Iridium into a cube is nearly $3000 (on top of the ~$6000 for the metal itself)!
- tyingq 5y ago
  Osmium would be heavier still (22.59 grams/cc), and a relative bargain at $1275 for the 10mm cube at the same source. Not polished/shiny though.
  - TeMPOraL 5y ago
    And, as divbzero's Quora link points out, it's going to kill you by oxidizing into a toxin when exposed to open air.
    - tyingq 5y ago
      That seems to be a concern with osmium powder, ground osmium, etc. I don't think that a cube has any handling requirements more exotic than lead solder.
      - GravitasFailure 5y ago
        Less than that even. It's a noble metal and doesn't like to react under normal conditions, though hitting it with a blowtorch might ruin your day.
  - adrian_b 5y ago
    Osmium is the densest pure metal, but iridium has an almost identical density, i.e. 22.56 for Ir, vs. 22.59 for Os. The difference is far too small to give you a different feeling when holding a piece of either osmium or iridium. While osmium and iridium are the densest pure metals, there is a range of composition in the osmium-iridium alloys which has a slightly greater density than both pure osmium and pure iridium. That happens because the atomic concentration of Os is a little higher than that of Ir while the atomic mass of Ir is a little higher than that of Os. While increasing the proportion of Ir in an Os-Ir alloy from 0% to 100%, there is a range where the atomic concentration decreases slower than the average atomic mass increases, so the density of the alloy becomes greater than the density of pure osmium. At higher Ir percentages, the increase in atomic volume overcomes the increase in atomic mass, so the density becomes a little lower than for pure Os. Unlike pure osmium, an Os-Ir alloy would not be dangerous to handle. Pure osmium is slowly oxidized in air releasing the volatile and extremely dangerous osmium tetraoxide. In nature, the normal occurrence of both Os and Ir is as nuggets made of Os-Ir alloy, usually also containing ruthenium and very small quantities of rhodium.