In the opening scenes of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones tries

Question

In the opening scenes of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones tries to remove a gold idol from a booby-trapped pedestal. He replaces the idol with a bag of sand of approximately equal volume. (Density of gold = 19.32 g/cm3; density of sand 3 g/cm3.).

A.) Did he have a reasonable chance of not activating the mass-sensitive booby trap?

B.) In a later scene he and the guide play catch with the idol. Assume that the volume of the idol is about 1.0 L. If it were solid gold, what mass would the idol have? Do you think he really could play catch with it?

Explanation / Answer

(a)

Since the density of gold idol is much higher as compared to that of sand, so there is no chance that the mass sensitive trap would not have been activated.

(b)

Mass of idol = Density*Volume = 19.32*1000 = 19320 g = 19.32 kg

So it is not possible to play catch with this heavy idol.

Hope this helps !

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