In the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones attempts to fool a booby tra

Question

In the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones attempts to fool a booby trap by replacing a golden statue with a bag of sand of roughly equivalent size. Assuming that the statue was about twice the size of a 12oz can (in both height and diameter) of pop, then calculate the mass of both the gold statue (p Au = 19.3 g cm-3) and the bag of sand (p sand = 1.3 g cm-3). Given that 1 kg weighs about 2.2 lb comment on the believability of this particular scene and comment on whether you think the substitution of the sand for the gold would realistically fool the booby trap.

Explanation / Answer

Since this is a units conversion problem 24 oz / (16 oz/lb) = 1.5 lb 1.5 lb / (2.2 lb / kg) = .68 kg = 680 gm m = p V where m is mass and p the density the density of a 12 oz can is the same as that of water or 1 gm / cm^3 So V = m / p = 680 gm / (1 gm . cm^3) = 680 cm^3 Now just multiply the calculated volume by the densities of sand and gold to get the masses of the statue and bag of sand

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse I
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.