In one of the classic movies of “Indiana Jones” the protagonist used a bag of sand to replace a gold statue that sits on a weight sensitive alarmed pedestal...

Question

The bag of sand and the statue have exactly the same volume, 1.75 L. (assume the mass of the bag to be negligible).

a) Calculate the mass of each object. (density of gold = 19.3 g/cm3 , density of sand = 3.00 gm/cm3 .

b) Will the alarm be set off? Explain.

Answer 1

1.75 L gold x 1000 cm3/L x 19.3 g/c 3 = 33,775 g of gold

1.75 L sand x 1000 cm3/L x 3.00 g/cm3 = 5250 g sand

You bet the alarm will go if you substitute 5250 g of sand for 33,775 g of gold.