The Las Vegas hockey team chose a stupid name for their players. The Golden Knights implies they wear a suit of armour made of gold, This is a ridiculous idea.
First of all gold is a denser material than the steel that a knight’s suit of armour would have been made of. The density of the steel those suits of armour were made of was around 7.75 grams per centimeter cubed. Gold is much denser at 19.32 gram per centimeter cubed. It is about 2.5 times denser.
Secondly gold is more malleable than steel and most metals. That means if you are trying to deflect a mace blow or a lance strike, you would want more gold than the steel you would normally wear as a knight. I think it would have to have twice the thickness of the steel.
An average suit of armour weighed about 50 pounds. With the 2.5 times density multiplier, it would weigh 125 pounds because of this difference. Doubling the amount of gold to make up for its malleability would make the suit weigh 250 pounds.
That’s a lot of extra weight for a man to be able to lift in combat while battling away. It would set him at a severe disadvantage to the steel suited competitors.
And the cost! 16 ounces times 250 pounds times $5 000 dollars an ounce for gold makes each suit cost 20 million dollars in materials. Multiply that by 20 players and it costs 400 million dollars to outfit a team of Golden Knights.
And I still don’t know that doubling the thickness of the golden suit would be enough to make up for its malleability Is there is anyone out there strong enough to wear a 250 pound suit and wants to see if their suit can match a steel one in combat? Any takers?
That’s why Golden Knights is a stupid name.
