Question

A chemist is brought a small solid figurine. The owner wants to know if it is made of silver but doesn’t want it damaged during the analysis. The chemist decides to determine the density, knowing that silver has a density of 10.5 g/mL. The figurine is put into a graduated cylinder that contains 32.6 mL of water. The reading while the figurine is in the water is 60.1 mL. The mass of the figurine is 240.8 g. Is the figurine made of silver? Explain your reasoning thoroughly.

Answer 1

If any figurine is made of a pure element/material, then the density of figurine will have to be equal to the density of the element/material since there are no other material included in it and thus the properties will be same as that of the element/material.