What makes white gold white and yellow gold yellow?

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What makes white gold white and yellow gold yellow?

In: Chemistry

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The electrons in gold move at relativistic (i.e. a significant portion of the speed of light) speeds. As such the wavelengths of light absorbs shift (contract) resulting in reflecting gold/yellow parts of the visible spectrum.

Sorry, not really an ELI5 explanation but couldn’t really think how to simplyfy it.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Different other metals in the gold.

For white Gold it’s often Palladium, Nickel or Silver.

Yellow gold is mostly silver and copper, and close to pure gold in colour.

Anonymous 0 Comments

White gold is mixed with white metals like nickel, while yellow gold is mixed with yellow metals like copper.