Given rho_"gold"=19.3*g*cm^-3, will a thief set off a mass-activated alarm if he steals a gold cylinder which is 22*cm long, and which has a diameter of 7.6*cm, and replaces the gold bar with a bag of sand whose mass is 3*kg?

2 Answers
Sep 5, 2016

Yes, the tea leaf sets off the alarm.

Explanation:

The question is asking you to use density, rho, which is "mass"/"volume", and usually has units of g*cm^-3 or g*mL^-1 in order to determine the mass of each substance.

Since "density, "rho = "Mass"/"Volume", "mass"="volume"xxrho. The volume of a cylinder is pi*r^2*l, where "l" is cylinder length.

I need to find (i) the volume of the cylinder = pixx"radius"^2xx"length", and (ii) the mass of the substance it contains, = rhoxx"volume".

"Mass of gold" = 19.3*g*cancel(cm^-3)xxpixx3.8^2*cancel(cm^2)xx22*cancel(cm)

= 19252*g.

"Mass of sand" = 3.0*g*cancel(cm^-3)xxpixx3.8^2*cancel(cm^2)xx22*cancel(cm)

= 2993*g.

Given that gold is currently selling for $1326*USD*"oz"^-1 (1*"oz"=28.5*g), how much do you think that gold bar is worth?

Just to add that a "bag of sand" is cockney rhyming slang for a £1000-00, and this amused me....

Sep 5, 2016

Refer to the explanation.

Explanation:

First determine the volume of the cylinders. Then use the densities of the sand and gold to calculate their masses.

V_"cylinder"=pi*r^2*h, where pi is pi (I'm going to use the pi button on my calculator), r is the radius, and h is the height.

Since no units for the radius and height (length) are given, but your densities are given in "g/cm"^3", I'm going to use centimeters.

V_"cylinder"=pi*(3.8 "cm")^2*22 "cm"="998 cm"^3"

Now we'll use the volume of the cylinders and the densities of sand and gold to determine their masses.

"density"=("mass")/("volume")"

We can rearrange the equation to determine mass.

"mass"="density"xx"volume"

Determine the mass of sand.

"mass"_"sand"=3.00 "g"/cancel"cm"^3xx998 cancel"cm"^3=3.0xx10^3 "g" (rounded to two significant figures)

Determine the mass of gold.

"mass"_"gold"=19.3 "g"/cancel"cm"^3xx998 cancel"cm"^3=19000 "g" (rounded to two significant figures)

As you can see, the sand's mass is much lower than that of the gold, so the alarm would be expected to go off.