According to legend, archimedes, who was a famous greek mathematician, was given a crown, which was supposed to be made of pure gold but contained some silver alloy, by king hiero ii of sicily. he was asked by the king to prove or disprove his suspicion. (the crown indeed did contain silver). if you were archimedes, how would have determined experimentally whether or not the crown was pure gold?

Question

Trystan Yoder

Chemistry

28 June, 13:34

According to legend, archimedes, who was a famous greek mathematician, was given a crown, which was supposed to be made of pure gold but contained some silver alloy, by king hiero ii of sicily. he was asked by the king to prove or disprove his suspicion. (the crown indeed did contain silver). if you were archimedes, how would have determined experimentally whether or not the crown was pure gold?

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Abbey Howard · Answer 1

Determining the volume of water displaced by the crown and using the gold density to determine the mass of the crown equals the mass got from weighing the crown on a weighing machine. if the mass matches the mass got from the weighing machine then the crown is made of pure gold if otherwise, the gold is not pure.