Answer to Question #136687 in General Chemistry for Marissa

Question

While panning for gold you find a cube-shaped nugget that looks like gold. You find its mass to be 1.24 g. You know that the density of real gold is about 19.3 g/cm3 and that the density of fool's gold is 5.0 g/cm3. If the cubic nugget is about 0.40 cm on each side, determine if you have real gold or fool’s gold in your possession.

Answer 1

Volume of the nugget = l x w x h

= (0.4 x 0.4 x 0.4)cm³

= 0.064cm³

Density of the nugget $=\dfrac{mass}{volume}$

$= \dfrac{1.24g}{0.064cm^3}$

= 19.375g/cm³

Conclusion: The nugget contains pure gold