Joe Rogan on science: what the evidence says · JRE #2152
SUBJECT: SCIENCE
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
And they weren't necessarily doing electronics, but silver is even more conductive if you want it for electronics. Silver is like 17 times the conductivity of gold.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Rogan said silver is about 17 times more electrically conductive than gold. Silver does have the highest electrical conductivity of any metal, a property confirmed by U.S. government materials references, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory periodic table, which describes silver as having "the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all metals," and the U.S. Geological Survey, which lists high electrical conductivity among silver's defining physical properties (driving its use in electronics, 27% of 2023 U.S. silver demand). However, standard reference values put silver's electrical conductivity at approximately 63 million siemens per meter and gold's at approximately 41 million siemens per meter, a ratio of roughly 1.5 to 1, not 17 to 1. Gold is itself widely used in electronics and connectors precisely because it is a good conductor with high corrosion resistance, consistent with gold and silver being in the same general conductivity range rather than differing by 17-fold. The direction of Rogan's claim (silver more conductive than gold) is correct, but the magnitude is overstated by roughly an order of magnitude; a 17-times figure does not match any standard materials-science reference value.