We've all heard someone or something described as "worth their weight in gold." So, just how much is that?

How much does a gold bar weigh? We thought it would be fun to show you how much a gold bar weighs by imagining you had the fabled "Midas touch"!

What if you could turn things into gold? Unlike the tragic King Midas, let's say that you could control your power. Below, we've mostly chosen solid objects to turn into gold, with the exception of the iPhone 11.

First, here's what a standard size gold bar weighs and measures in terms of length, width, and height:

1 oz Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) gold bar: 50 mm by 28 mm by 1.5 mm

RCM gold bar from Royal Canadian Mint

1 oz Perth Mint gold bar: 41.6 mm by 24.6 mm by 1.71 mm

Perth Mint gold bar (Australia)

400 oz London Good Delivery gold bar: 250 mm (+/- 40 mm) by 70 mm (+/- 15 mm) by 35 mm (+/- 10 mm), with an undercut angle between 5° to 25°

400 oz Good Delivery gold bar

Unfortunately, no one would let us melt down their iPhone into a solid hunk, so we had to make some assumptions. We decided that there was 10% air by volume inside the phone, among all the circuits, battery, and stuff. This meant that only 90% of the volume of an iPhone 11 would turn into gold.

That gives the weight in gold of an iPhone 11 (assuming 10% air space inside) = 3.6 lb.

iPhone made of gold. Image: Deccan Chronicle

Here are some other things you might decide to turn to gold, and what they would weigh afterwards.

Casino dice made of gold. Image: Pinterest

Golf ball made of gold. Image: Tim Ressa Golf

Chicken nugget made of gold. Image: Hypebeast

Coke can made of gold. Image: Pinterest

Pizza made of gold. Image: Pinterest

If you used the Midas touch on today's coins, a penny would be worth $400! Your pocket change adds up like this, assuming a gold price of $1900 (weight converted to troy oz):

Penny = 0.015 lb of gold = 0.218 troy oz = $414.20

Nickel = 0.031 lb of gold = 0.446 oz = $847.40

Dime = 0.001 lb of gold = 0.0127 oz = $24.13

Quarter = 0.034 lb of gold = 0.502 oz = $953.80

Half Dollar = 0.067 lb of gold = 0.981oz = $1,863.90

"Small" dollar = 0.047 lb of gold = 0.685 oz = $1,301.50

The formula we used for these calculations is quite simple: First, multiply the weight in pounds by 14.583 to convert the weight to troy ounces. Then multiply that by the spot price of gold.

Example: Someone weighs 150 pounds, and the spot gold price is $1,900.

If a person who weighs 150 pounds is worth their weight in gold, they are worth $4.1 million and change if the gold price is $1,900 an ounce.

(In metric, the formula is: Weight in kg × 32.15 × spot price = Value of your weight in gold.)

Find out what being "worth your weight in gold" looks like.

The next question is "what would my weight in gold look like?" The answer is a little more complicated than our previous examples.

One pound of gold has a volume of 1.433 cubic inches. Multiplying the weight of the gold gives us the total volume.

Taking the weight of the person in our first example, 150 × 1.433 = 214.95 cu inches.

The second step is getting the dimensions of the gold cube. To do this, we take the cube root of the volume. (If you can do this by hand, maybe you deserve your weight in gold.)

So, if you weigh 150 pounds and are worth your weight in gold, that gold would make a solid cube measuring six inches to a side.

100 lb$2.77 million5.23" per side

125 lb$3.46 million5.64" per side

150 lb$4.16 million5.99" per side

175 lb$4.85 million6.30" per side

200 lb$5.54 million6.59" per side

While it's fun to think about getting free gold from magical powers, gold does some magic of its own in the real world. Gold increases in value when national currencies weaken due to inflation or central bank policies. It can offset losses in the stock market during big downturns.

In extreme cases, it can save someone's life by paying for their way out of regions suffering from wars, social upheaval, or natural disaster. And that may be its biggest magic of all.

More information about gold bars from Gainesville Coins:

What Are Gold Bars and What Are They Used For?

How Much Is a Gold Bar Worth Today?

How to Buy Gold Bars: Buyer's Guide

A published writer, Steven's coverage of precious metals goes beyond the daily news to explain how ancillary factors affect the market.

Steven specializes in market analysis with an emphasis on stocks, corporate bonds, and government debt.

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