Any scientists around? What would happen if I heated a bucket's worth of gold, rubies, sapphires & emeralds to 5000C?

[StarInTheHeavens]

This was my dream last night..😂 I was so angry I smashed up my award-winning gold & gemstone studded vases (that I made) and then incinerated them at 5000C. I felt quite triumphant..

Now I'm awake I'm wondering what would really happen? I suppose if you smash gemstones they might break into smaller bits, ditto gold. I read this morning that gold melts at roughly 1000C. So does anyone know what'd be left in my dream incinerator if I opened it next day? Would it be a black mess?

There’s a few suggestions in here:
www.quora.com/Could-you-melt-gems-diamonds-rubies-emeralds-and-mix-them-so-they-create-something-new?top_ans=182994387

Google (not a science journal and I didn’t check!) suggests that gold boils at 2856 deg C (presumably at normal pressure?) so your gold would have boiled away.

You also did very well to get a furnace that hot, as another very cursory search suggests that the hottest furnaces are around 3000degC, unless you’re using the hadron collider or something.

😂Thank you very much @Talipesmum

No idea. But it would definitely be that browny-grey colour you get when you mix all the PlayDoh together.

if you like this kind of question, read this blog (also 2 v good books)

it answers questions like -
"I heard that bananas are radioactive. If they are radioactive, then they radiate energy. How many bananas would you need to power a house?"

what-if.xkcd.com/158/

Not a scientist, and not sure of the temperatures involved, but I do recall seeing some fascinating pictures (which I now can't find!) of some jewellery that had been in a bank vault beneath the World Trade Centre. Some was recognisable but most had melted and fused together.

That’s the exact thing that came to my mind too with your question, OP - what would Randall Monroe say? (Blog and book author). There’s a great chapter in one of the books about what would happen if you tried to build a 3D periodic table out of little cubes of all the elements in the right order. It descends into global destruction far sooner than I’d anticipated!!

You've got me very curious now, I'm off to google....

My kiln only goes up to 1300⁰C, but send me all you gold and rubis and I'll test it for you 😉