On Mon, 13 Sep 2004, William Chops Westfield wrote:

> On Sep 13, 2004, at 6:53 PM, M. Adam Davis wrote:
>
>> I've always understood gold to be the best in all these areas
>
> But gold is not at all "springy", so battery contacts made from
> pure gold wouldn't work very well...

It's always plated on something. Contacts that must sustain wear are 
plated with Rhodium over other things (phosphor bronze and nickel or steel 
and nickel ?). But gold/gold contacts have the lowest noise and best 
corrosion resistance so they are used for assembly connectors.

Peter
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