A thief swaps an 18 ounce gold bar for an 18 ounce lead weight on a pressure plate, and the alarm goes off.

physics/gold.and.lead New

New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.

Problem

A thief swaps an 18 ounce gold bar for an 18 ounce lead weight on a
pressure plate, and the alarm goes off.  Which weighs more, 18 ounces
of lead or 18 ounces of gold?

A thief sneaks into a museum to steal an 18 ounce gold bar.  The bar is
on a pressure sensitive plate.  Prior to the burglary, the thief
stopped by a local science supply shop and purchased an 18 ounce lead
weight.  He swaps the two quickly, a la Indiana Jones, only to be
surprised by the alarm.  Which weighs more 18 ounces of lead or 18
ounces of gold?

-- Paul Kane <paulk@jcp.co.uk>

Show solution

Could it be that the gold's weight was in troy ounces?

0.9114 troy ounces = 1 ounce

-- Glenn A. Larson, Jr. <glenn.larson@imagauto.com>