Why do Olympic winners bite their medals?

Ever wondered why Olympic winners bite their medals?

This quirky tradition actually stems from a historical practice of testing the authenticity of gold. By biting into the metal, one could check for purity, as real gold is soft and would leave bite marks. Today, it’s more of a playful photo opportunity, symbolizing the athletes’ triumph and adding a bit of fun to their moment of glory, while giving photographers a perfect shot to make the front page.

Gold is soft due to its atomic structure. It is a metal with a face-centered cubic crystal structure, which allows atoms to slide past each other relatively easily. This property makes gold malleable and ductile, meaning it can be hammered into thin sheets and drawn into wires without breaking. Additionally, gold has fewer delocalized electrons compared to other metals, resulting in weaker metallic bonds and contributing to its softness. This softness is why pure gold is often alloyed with other metals to increase its hardness and durability for practical uses, such as in jewelry and coins.

#science #gold #olympic #medal #materialscience
#shorts

[calebchris]

I think its to check if it has chocolate inside.

[ultimateninjaboi]

"You might think its a callback to checking gold, but its actually a callback to checking gold."

[Ronaldo_]

Are you in Paris 😂 right now, watching olympics for physics 😅

[noflippingwayman]

I thought you bite it to check it's gold because gold doesn't taste metallic .. therfore it's gold, this works for silver as well I thought

[franciswhite]

It probably helps get the medal and the face into one small image too

[nsmith]

That's such a rip off. A gold medal isn't even gold anymore. 😂😂😂 what a joke

[MyAcer]

cant even call it a gold medal if its less than 51% gold

[kcquitano]

So… it is a call back to when we would bite coins to check if theyre gold?

[recco_caine]

So they’re just doing it for the gram, so to speak 😂😂😂

[St.Gabriel]

When I saw a cartoon character do it and it bent, they threw it away. If it was rigid, they were happy. Ironic

[vt.physics]

What's your favorite events at the Olympics so far?

[Fozzimo]

Somehow button pushers are still more artistic than ai art

[ansh]

So what they are actually made off. Silver with gold plated??

[brookelord]

So the real reason is because people used to bite gold.

[JeffGoris]

I don't understand why Olympians testing to see if their medals are made of gold is a thing. It's as if the athlete doesn't trust the authenticity of their medals.

[mubeenuddin]

Still Best Olympic was from The Office 🥇🥇🥇

[jack_cb]

got some similar shorts about this topic😅

[Emppu_T.]

I was thinking about buying our Olympic athletes chocolate gold medals so they can have them when they come back bmhome from paris without winning a single gold medal, again.

[FantasyYeet]

Just turn it to gold dust and sniff it up! Keep the gold in the body!!!

[tousifislam]

Stupid tradition of biting medals. Respect your medals they should hold it to their chest and not bite it