The spark won't travel faster, but gold is a better conductor than copper, iron, etc. I think silver is actually better than gold though?
Regardless... TPT doesn't exactly have an accurate system for electricity. All it has is spark, which can be infinitely formed by a loop of metal and a connected wire. There are no charges, electromagnets, induction... The system doesn't support different levels of conductivity in metals, so presumably they just made gold conduct faster to represent the fact. Plus it gives it more use than just stopping metal corrosion.
Yes, the best conductor is silver. Actually, who is that crazy to waste expensive silver for cables? In real life gold is great conductor too, but nobody would build super expensive power lines, which probably would be robbed by someone.
I have been building electronics industrially for over 20 years. gold is used specifically because it does not oxidize. so bare leads like on the edge of your DS game cards or usb connectors. very little is used, usually only 100 angstroms thick, its just there to ensure a clean connector. bare copper oxidizes and that oxide acts as a resistor. so the gold connector ends on your cables is for long term reliability.
@Sandwichlizard: I read somewhere that in your phone is gold which is worth about 4 dolars.
No problem! I'm a big fan of chemistry so I'm happy to learn more.
I should add though- TPT doesn't have copper or silver, and gold is still better than a lot of others, so... I suppose it still works?
docRoboRobert:
@Sandwichlizard: I read somewhere that in your phone is gold which is worth about 4 dolars.
exactly. thats not very much gold at all.
as of this post gold is over $1200 an ounce. soyour phone has maybe .004 ounces of gold total. not even enough to make one solid gold stud earring.
current gold prices by weight