Terry Allen Hoffman, age 11, of Columbus, Ohio, for his question:

Will any chemical dissolve gold?

For all its glamour, gold is a very sturdy metal. It will not shatter under a hammer. When pulled into a long, thin thread it will not snap. One ounce can be pulled into a thread a mile long. And the beautiful precious, workable metal refuses to dissolve in most chemicals.

However, there is one chemical which can dissolve it. It is really a mixture of chemicals known as aqua regia, meaning regal water. Since gold was considered the metal of kings it was naturally thought that something royal would be needed to dissolve it. Actually, this aqua regia is a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid.