Assuming a typical fiddle weighs 400g and was made from wood with density of 0.8g/ml, the same fiddle made from gold would weigh~9.5kg though it could be lighter as the walls could be made thinner if made from gold sheet i would imagine
Well as a structural material gold is not good due to most metals being better in every way but for example gold has a tensile strenght of 120MPa while for wood 120MPa seems to be the upper limit after a bit of googling(varies wildly by species, density, moisture and perhaps most importantly grain orientation) so in the context of a same size/thickness etc violin i would wager that the gold one would be quite bit harder to break than the wooden one
Assuming a typical fiddle weighs 400g and was made from wood with density of 0.8g/ml, the same fiddle made from gold would weigh~9.5kg though it could be lighter as the walls could be made thinner if made from gold sheet i would imagine
Since when is gold a better structural material than wood?
Well as a structural material gold is not good due to most metals being better in every way but for example gold has a tensile strenght of 120MPa while for wood 120MPa seems to be the upper limit after a bit of googling(varies wildly by species, density, moisture and perhaps most importantly grain orientation) so in the context of a same size/thickness etc violin i would wager that the gold one would be quite bit harder to break than the wooden one