During a recent visit to the absolutely fabulous new Anchorage Museum, I had a chance to explore the traveling exhibit on gold. Among the various displays featuring gold from its elemental structure to sacred uses in traditional societies, there was an interactive center in which you can calculate your weight in gold - giving a whole new meaning to the phrase!
The formula is simple: 1 troy ounce = 0.0685714286 pounds, 14.58 troy ounces to a pound

Take your weight in pounds x 14.58 x today’s price of gold = E voila! Your weight in gold! Based upon the cost of gold for today’s date a 150 pound person is worth $2,042,658.00. Pretty cool!

Did you know the average price of gold during the California Gold Rush was $16 an ounce? And the phrase “worth your weight in gold” goes back to the Roman Empire?

If you have an extra hour in Anchorage either before or after your cruise, I strongly recommend you spend that time in this beautiful new museum. The exhibit on the history of the people of Alaska is excellent. Hate to say it kinda shames the State Museum in Juneau. The exhibit takes you from man’s entry into North America during the end of the last ice age all the way through statehood and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. I found the exhibits well presented and the information honest and non-biased; very well done. Go see it!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 10:44 am and is filed under General, Fun, Alaska. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.