Lab # 5

ARCHIMEDES REVISITED

Archimedes revisited, not a problem with the gold, because there is none, but with our Copper money.

Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

PROBLEM:

How to determine the composition of our Penny ! With out doing any damage to the   penny ! Is it copper or like the rest of our coins just copper coated ?

MATERIALS:

Ten pennies, SBB, Onion mesh bag ( Plastic mesh bag, looks like a hair net, but is usually red in color and made out of plastic ) Thin thread ( Preferable monofilament thread )

PROCEDURE:

1. Obtain one penny, whose weight is 2.5 grams, check the weight, to be sure, and place them into a small section of the Onion mesh bag, about 2 inch square. Take the four conners of the mesh bag section that you made, and pass the thin thread, through the four ends, so it forms a hanging bag. Depending on the size of mesh used, there are several sizes, try to use the least amount of plastic mesh for your experiment. You should use the same amout of mess and place it into the right side of the cup of the SBB.

2. Repeat the above with five pennies and then with 10 pennies, when using a number of coins, make sure that the coins are oreinted in a vertical position, so as not to trap any air between them.

3. You know the weight of five and ten pennies, but it wont hurt to take the weight of these pennies, and record it.

4. Next obtain a plastic gallon container, filled half way with water, and placed by the table with the SBB. Slip the bag of coins into the plastic gallon container, and take its weight, and record it. Don't forget that we do not have a graduate cylinder, so we will be using the loss of weight as being equvalent to our millimeter.

OBSERVATION:

1. You know that the Density of Copper is Cu = 8.9 g/cm3 or 8.9 g / ml. Your answer is going to be much less. Check your results, with the results that you obtained in lab # 4.

QUESTIONS:

1. Looking at our penny, it seems to have all the Qualitative properties of Copper, list them.

2. What are the Quantitative properties of Copper, list them ( see lab 4) .

3. What are the two ways of expressing Volume in the metric system ?

4. If you had a cube, and whose sides measure five centimeters on its Length, Width and Height, what would be its volume ?

5. Why do you think that the quarters and dimes are sliver plated with copper in the center?

6. If you happen to have a pure silver coin or find a person that has one, you can get a ringing sound from it, by placing it between your finger tips, and holding it suspended between your finger nails and glowing on it, like you are going to blow out a match and then bring it to your ear, you will hear it ringing.

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