Question

You may have been surprised to learn that Olympic gold medals are not made from solid gold, but instead have a coating of • Saved gold on the outside.
To see a possible reason why, determine the value of the medal the size (not mass) of the Olympic gold medal if it were made of solid gold. Hint: As of mid-2018, the cost of gold is about $40 per gram.

Answer 1

Answer:

A gold medal has the (minimum) dimensions of:

diameter = 60mm

thickness = 3mm

So we will work with those dimensions.

The medal is then a cyinder of diameter

D = 60mm = 6cm

and height:

H = 3mm = 0.3cm

Remember that the volume of a cylinder is:

V = pi*(D/2)^2*H

where pi = 3.14

Then the volume of a medal is:

V = 3.14*(6cm/3)^2*0.3cm = 3.768 cm^3

The density of the gold in g/cm^3 is:

d = 19.3 g/cm^3

And remember that:

density = mass/volume

So, if the volume is 3.768 cm^3

Then the mass will be:

mass = density*volume =  19.3 g/cm^3*3.768 cm^3 = 72.7 g

So, a single gold medal would weight 72.7 grams

And each gram of gold costs $40

Then the total cost of the gold medal would be:

value = $40*72.7 = $2,908

Now, if yo think that in the Olympics there are 35 sports (a lot with a large number of players) and near 50 disciplines, they need a lot of gold medals.

And each gold medal costs $2,908

So the total cost (only for the gold medals, ignoring the others) would be to high.

This is why the gold medals are made mostly of silver.