Chem Question?

Question

In the opening of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones tries to remove a gold idol from a boobytrapped pedestal. He replaces the idol with a bag of sand of approximately equal colume. (density of gold = 19.32 g/cm^3, density of sand ~3 g/cm^3)

a. Did he have a resonable chance of not activating the mass-sensitive booby trap?

b. In a later scene he and a unscrupulous guide play catch with the idol. Assume that the volume of the idol is about 1.0L. If it were solid gold, what mass would the idol have? Is playing catch with it plausible?

Answer 1

i don't know about those math.

but it is impossible to replace gold with sand bag. Gold is way more dense. and they would not be able to play catch with that idol. i would be extremely heavy. but hey. he is indiana jones. lol. sry if i didn't answer your question. good luck

Answer 2

a. No chance, gold is a lot more dense than sand.

b. 1.0L is 1000 cm^3. Since gold is 19.32 g/ cm^3, that is 19,320 grams or 19.32 kg, which is around 43 pounds. It's only maybe plausible if you're a bodybuilder...