Question

In an old trunk, you find a piece of metal that you think may be aluminum, silver, or lead. you take it to a lab, where you find it has a mass of 114 g and a volume of 10.9 cm3. what is the metal you found? assume that densities of aluminium, silver, and lead are 2.70, 10.5, and 11.3 g/ml, respectively.

Answer 1

Answer: The metal found is silver.

Explanation:

To calculate density of a substance, we use the equation:

$\text{Density of substance}=\frac{\text{Mass of substance}}{\text{Volume of substance}}$

We are given:

Mass of object = 114 g

Volume of object = $10.9cm^3=10.9mL$   (Conversion factor:  $1cm^3=1mL$  )

Putting values in above equation, we get:

$\text{Density of object}=\frac{114g}{10.9mL}=10.5g/mL$

The calculated value of density matches the density of silver.

Hence, the metal found is silver.