Answer to Question #146570 in Physics for Marie

Question

6. A piece of irregular shape gold ring is of unknown mass. In the absence of weighing scale, and the only
available to you is a graduated cylinder and water. If the gold ring is immersed to the graduated cylinder
with water, the volume of water increases to 4.0 cubic centimeter, what is the mass of the gold ring?

Answer 1

Yes, volume is all we need to solve this problem!

As we know, mass is density times volume:

$$m=\rho V.$$

We know volume, and if we are dealing with pure gold metal, the density can be found in reference books or tables: 19.3 g/cm³.

The units of density and volume correspond to each other, so, the mass of the piece is

$$m=19.3\cdot4=77.2\text{ g}.$$