Someone from the metals trading group asked me this on Thursday and I thought it was interesting:If Gold is $673.7oz, how many atoms for 1cent of gold?

(1 oz/673.7 dollars)*(31.10g/oz)*(1mol/196.9665g)*(6.022*10^23 atoms/mol)*(1 dollar/100 cents) ~= 10^18

Hmm... made me wonder, would the price of comodities change order at all if they we're priced per atom (or mol) rather than by weight?Instinct is it wouldn't because heavy atoms seem to be expensive anyway...Any idea what the most expensive stable atom would be? Osmium?

Would be more interesting to price them according to abundance.wiki

Except since titanium is so expensive and so rediculously abundant it would win by miles.Getting slightly sillier... What is the scrap value of the earth at todays prices?

Interesting! ( or silly ) ... That would require the price of every single element in a portfolio of relative abundances.

For 1 kilo of Each (not certain these prices are bang on but close enough...)iron: 35 .1 % @ $0.28oxygen: 28 .2 % silicon: 17 .2 % @ $1.10magnesium: 15 .9 % @ $1.65nickel: 1 .6 % @ $24.00calcium: 1 .6 % aluminium: 1 .5 % @ $2.77sulfur: 0 .70 % sodium: 0 .25 % titanium: 0 .071 % @ $15.00potassium: 0 .019 % other elements: 0 .53 % can't find a price for oxygen? Anyone help with any of the missing ones?Assuming the others are free, then 1kg of earth costs $0.986And since the earth weighs 5.98 x 10^24 kg, then its scrap value must be around $5.9 trillion trillion

Maybe this explains house prices...The earth has surface area of about 510 trillion square meters.Based on its value, every square meter should be worth about $11.5bnWhich makes a london flat seem cheap by comparison...

QuoteOriginally posted by: MikeCroweWhat is the scrap value of the earth at todays prices?How much does it cost to hire a security guard slick enough to tell these suckers it's yours?Hey you, stop burning fossil fuel, that's MY AIR!LOL...

Whoops, here you go, here's 30000 in gasoline tax which you you are rewarded with for... watching TV? Yes!Thanks to your diligent viewership of television, you have inherited the Earth and shall be rewarded with 10,000 iin gasoline tax. Nice work!