A rectangular bar of platinum has a width of 5 centimeters, a height of 8 centimeters, and an unknown length. You measure the platinum bar and it is exactly 1 kilogram. Find the length of the bar if you know its density is 21.4 g/cm3 . Round your answer to the nearest hundredth.(1 point)

cm

1 answer

To find the length of the platinum bar, we can use the formula for density, which is given by:

\[ \text{Density} = \frac{\text{Mass}}{\text{Volume}} \]

Rearranging this formula gives us:

\[ \text{Volume} = \frac{\text{Mass}}{\text{Density}} \]

  1. Convert the mass from kilograms to grams: The mass of the platinum bar is 1 kilogram, which is equivalent to \(1000\) grams.

  2. Use the density to find the volume: The density of platinum is \(21.4 , \text{g/cm}^3\). Plugging in the values, we get:

    \[ \text{Volume} = \frac{1000 , \text{g}}{21.4 , \text{g/cm}^3} \approx 46.731 , \text{cm}^3 \]

  3. Now, we can find the volume of a rectangular bar with given dimensions: The volume \(V\) of a rectangular bar is given by:

    \[ V = \text{length} \times \text{width} \times \text{height} \]

    Given the width \(w = 5 , \text{cm}\) and the height \(h = 8 , \text{cm}\), we can write:

    \[ V = L \times 5 , \text{cm} \times 8 , \text{cm} \]

    where \(L\) is the length of the bar we need to find. From the volume we calculated earlier, we have:

    \[ 46.731 , \text{cm}^3 = L \times 5 , \text{cm} \times 8 , \text{cm} \]

  4. Solving for length \(L\):

    \[ 46.731 = L \times 40 \]

    \[ L = \frac{46.731}{40} \approx 1.168275 \]

  5. Rounding to the nearest hundredth:

    \[ L \approx 1.17 , \text{cm} \]

Thus, the length of the platinum bar is approximately 1.17 cm.