Question

A geologist finds a piece of a "gold nugget". He's not sure if it is real gold or pyrite (fools gold). He measured the mass of the nugget to be 10g. He determined the volume of the nugget (through displacement) to be 2 mL. What is the density of this substance? Can it be real gold?

Answer 1

mass = 10 g

volume = 2 ml

density = ?

Density is a physical property that relates the mass and the volume.

Formula

density = mass / volume

Substitution

density = 10/2

Result

density = 5 g/ml

real density of gold = 19.32 g/ml

Then, it is not gold