Iron pyrite is often called “fool’s gold” because it looks like gold. Suppose you have a solid that looks like gold, but you believe it to be fool’s gold. The sample has a mass of 23.5 g. When the sample is lowered into the water in a graduated cylinder, the water level rises from 47.5 mL to 52.2 mL. Is the sample fool’s gold (d = 5.00g/cm3 ) or “real” gold (d = 19.3g/cm3)?

1 answer

a liter is 1000 mL which is 1000 cm^3 (10cm*10cm*10cm)
volume = 52.2 - 47.5 = 4.7 mL
so density = 23.5 g / 4.7 cm^3 = 5 g/cm^3
that is not gold :)