Question

ou purchase a rectangular piece of metal that has dimen- sions 5.0 * 15.0 * 30.0 mm and mass 0.0158 kg. The seller tells you that the metal is gold. To check this, you compute the average density of the piece. What value do you get? Were you cheated?

Answer 1

Answer: 7022.2kg/m³, yes, I was cheated

Explanation:

Density of an object is defined as the ratio of the mass of the object to its volume. Mathematically;

Density = Mass/Volume

Note that the unit of both mass and volume must be standard unit.

Given mass = 0.0158kg

Dimension of the metal = 5mm×15mm×30mm

Note that 1mm = 0.001m

The volume of the metal will be

0.005×0.015×0.03

= 0.00000225m³

Density = 0.0158/0.00000225

Average density of the metal = 7022.2kg/m³

Since the standard density of Gold is 19,320kg/m³ and is higher than the density prescribed for me, it shows the I was cheated.