How Can You Tell if Gold is Real or Fake?

To tell if gold is real or fake, measure its density. The density of gold, 19.3 grams / cm3, is much higher than most other metals. Even lead has a density of only 11.4 g/cm3 -- platinum, iridium, osmium, and neptunium are the only metals that have a density over 20 g/cm3! (For comparison the density of water is only 1 g/cm3).

To measure the density of a metal, you need a scale or balance (to measure the mass) and a graduated cylinder (to measure the volume).

First weigh the piece of gold on the scale. Then, to determine the volume, add some water to the graduated cylinder. It doesn't matter how much, but write down exactly how much there is.

Then add the gold to the graduated cylinder. Again, write down the exact water level. Take the difference of the two numbers to get the volume of the gold alone. Remember 1 milliliter = 1 cm3.

Finally, find the density by dividing the mass by the volume (density = mass ÷ volume). If what you get is approximately 19 g/cm3, then it is real gold. It might be slightly less because almost all gold jewelry is not actually 100% gold (pure gold is too soft for jewelry). Note also that this method won't work if there parts of the jewelry that are not gold (like gems, etc.) because the density you measure will be affected by those other non-gold parts.

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