Question

In the opening scene of Raiders of the lost ark, Indiana Jones tries to remove a gold idol from a booby-trapped pedestal replacing the idol with a bag of sand of approximately equal volume. The density of gold is 19.32 g/cm^3, while that of sand is around 2.00g/cm^3. Assuming the volume of the idol was around 1.00 L, should he have expected this to work? Later, Indiana and his guide casually play catch with the idol. How much mass were they ostensibly tossing back and forth?

Answer 1

Density of Idol = 19.32 g/cm^3

volume of Idol = 1L = 1000mL = 1000cm^3

1 cm^3 idol has mass 19.32 g

1000 cm^3 idol has mass 19.32 g / cm^3 * 1000 cm^3 = 19320 g

1 cm^3 has 2 g of sand then

1L = 1000 cm^3 volume of sand has 2 g /cm^3 * 1000 cm^3 = 2000 g

so they tossing back 2000 g of sand in the place of 19320 g of idol.

Since the idol has more dense with more mass and less volume but the sand has less mass in less volume. Hence less amount of sand is replaced the idol.