Was the riddle of the philosophers stone in Alchemy ever solved?What was the answer to this riddle?

Answer 1

It is interesting that it is called the Philosopher's Stone because although it seems likely that many people tried to turn lead into gold it was really a question of philosophy.

When a person becomes enlightened (and here I don't mean as a follower of any particular religion), they find that they finally recognise that life (normal human life) that they once considered to be base lead is actually pure gold.

Answer 2

quartz has several strange properties one is the fact that an electric charge will not pass through quartz but quartz will absorb a charge until it is charged then discharge the electric current to the other side.......The perfect size quartz along with proper circuits allow perfectly timed discharges= quartz watch.

Quarts also has another property:
piezoelectricity. Or the ability to transfer pressure upon the quartz to cause the release of minute electric charges... The most common use are flint less lighters...

In 1880, the brothers Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie predicted and demonstrated piezoelectricity using tinfoil, glue, wire, magnets, and a jeweller's saw. They showed that crystals of tourmaline, quartz, topaz, cane sugar, and Rochelle salt (sodium potassium tartrate tetrahydrate) generate electrical polarization from mechanical stress. Quartz and Rochelle salt exhibited the most piezoelectricity.


Also the first LASERs used ruby crystals to create their light beams (Most now use CO2.).
It was found that by charging the ruby with high voltage its molecules could be "exited" enough to cause a photon of light to be discharged....

It would seem that there are many "philosophers stones"... Why, since we all are aware of powers of certain stones, does the idea of a philosophers stone seem so much like a fairy tale....

But the stone in question I believe was the one that could transmutate lead to gold...And that idea isnt so far fetched either...The two have much in common...Molecular density...Mallability...Etc..

There was an urban legend (Fact?) about someone working with a particle excellerator and noticing some leaded contacts had indeed turned into gold ones......And I feel that if it were even accomplished it would require vast particle manipulation as well as massive amounts of power......

I just found this:
Transmutation of lead into gold isn't just theoretically possible - it has been achieved! There are reports that Glenn Seaborg, 1951 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, succeeded in transmuting a minute quantity of lead (possibly en route from bismuth, in 1980) into gold. There is an earlier report (1972) in which Soviet physicists at a nuclear research facility near Lake Baikal in Siberia accidentally discovered a reaction for turning lead into gold when they found the lead shielding of an experimental reactor had changed to gold.

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/generalchemistry/a/aa050601a.htm

Answer 3

The riddle is like a buddhist koan; meant to test one's symbolic and spiritual growth, which is really what the symbolism behind alchemy is about. If one cannot 'alter' the lead of one's own self, then one cannot alter the mettalic lead either.

And that is the answer.

Answer 4

The riddle was how to change the state of one element into another... There was never answer found to that riddle............

Answer 5

it was solved....the answer is that nobody can ever make a philosopher's stone...get real....if the philosophers stone was ever created,we won't be in this kind of world....having global warming....

Answer 6

No because there is no philosophers stone. You can not make one substance in to another. It is impossible.

Answer 7

Hey, it was just a great story for the weak minded. It may have had some believers in the dark ages, but, we are much more informed now.

Aren't we?

Answer 8

Oh, of course it was! The government keeps it next to the UFOs and alien corpses at Area 51.

//sarcasm, sorry

Answer 9

solution is nuclear synthesis, which is a very very expensive way of making gold.