Question

A large piece of jewelry has a mass of 132.6g. A graduated cylinder initially contains 48.6 mL water. When the jewellery is submerged in the graduated cylinder, the total volume increases to 61.2 mL.

a) Determine the density of this piece of jewelry.

b) Assuming that the jewellery is made from only one substance, what substance is it likely to be? Explain.

Short answer

a) The density of this piece of jewelry is 10.52 g/mL

b) The jewelry is made out of silver.

Step-by-step solution

Determine the density of the piece of jewelry

The density of a solution is given by the mass of a solution divided by its volume.

Given that: The mass of jewelry is 132.6g.

The volume of the graduated cylinder containing only water is 48.6 mL.

The volume of the cylinder after submerging jewelry is 61.2 mL.

The volume of the jewelry is equal to the rise in the volume of water before and after the addition of jewelry.

Volume of jewelry = 61.2 mL – 48.6 mL

= 12.6 mL

\({\rm{density = }}\dfrac{{{\rm{mass}}}}{{{\rm{volume}}}}\)

\({\rm{density = }}\dfrac{{{\rm{132}}{\rm{.6g}}}}{{{\rm{12}}{\rm{.6}}\,{\rm{mL}}}}\)

Density = 10.52 g/mL

Therefore, the density of jewelry is 10.52 g/mL

Determine why jewelry is made out of silver

Jewelry makers usually alloy silver with harder metals to improve its durability.

We alsocalculated the density to be equal to 10.52 g/mL, which is the density of silver.