On a kitchen scale you measure the coin’s mass to be 49.7 g. You measure the mass of a small bowl of water as 314.8 g. You tie a slender thread around the coin and suspend it completely submerged in the water but not touching the bottom. The scale reading is now 317.4 g. Should you get excited about the possibility that this coin might really be gold? Explain.
While vacationing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, you find an old coin that looks like it is made of gold. You know that there were many shipwrecks here, so you take the coin home to test it.