High School

Gold costs $41 per gram. The mass of a gold atom is \(3.27 \times 10^{-22}\) grams. How many gold atoms can I buy with a quarter?

Answer :

Final answer:

With a quarter, which is worth $0.25, you can purchase approximately 1.865 x 10¹⁹ gold atoms, calculating based on the price of $41 per gram and the mass of a gold atom being 3.27 x 10⁻²² grams.

Explanation:

To calculate how many gold atoms you can buy with a quarter, we first need to determine the value of a quarter in terms of gold. If gold costs $41 per gram, and a quarter is worth $0.25, we can divide 0.25 by 41 to find how many grams of gold you can buy with a quarter:

0.25 / 41 = 0.006097560975609756 grams of gold

Next, we use the mass of one gold atom, which is 3.27 x 10⁻²² grams, to calculate how many atoms are in 0.006097560975609756 grams:

0.006097560975609756 / (3.27 x 10⁻²²) = approximately 1.865 x 10¹⁹ atoms

Therefore, with a quarter, you can buy roughly 1.865 x 10¹⁹ gold atoms.