This is a continuation of element of the week. My mom picked out Rhodium because she never heard of it. Rhodium and Rhenium (75) are easy to confuse. When I first heard of the elements I had a hard time distinguishing the two because they both start with "Rh". Now forget about Rhenium, and think about Rhodium.
Rhodium is a supershiny metal. In fact it is too shiny. It is shinier than platinum (78), gold (79), silver (47), and palladium (46). It is found in South Africa, Russia, and in minute quantities around Sudbury, Ontario. South Africa is the world's leading producer of rhodium. Rhodium is prone to price swings. As of October 2007 Rhodium was worth eight times as much as gold, and thousands of times as much as copper (wow!). It is now still worth twice as much as gold, which is still precious. Rhodium is used in jewelry because it enhances the luster. Rhodium's melting point is 1966 degrees Celsius and its boiling point is 3727 degrees Celsius. It is a transition metal located around gold and silver, in what I call "the precious metals corridor".Although it is a precious metal it is sometimes used in the manufacturing of cars, but I don't know exactly how.
Now you know more about one of the most precious metals. And now, inform all the pirates that there is a metal more precious than gold.
