Posted by No arithmetician I, on June 27, 2003 at 12:14:59:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Weight difference/plating posted by Rick Denney on June 27, 2003 at 08:52:14:
But I think you may be a bit off, Rick. I'm not about to calculate the surface area of a 4/4 tuba, but I think I could wrap it in no more than 4 2-foot square sheets of newspaper. So:
4*24*24*.0004 = 0.9216 in3
So, if silver weighs 10490 kg/m3, then I'm looking at about 158 gr. or 5.5 oz. avoirdupois (or 5.0 oz. troy) of silver. More than a dime but less than 12 ounces. Nevertheless, it isn't the cost of silver that's responsible for the price differential. Yesterday silver closed at $4.54/troy oz.
Of course, anyone who's ever worked on an old silverplated tuba knows that the more distant the branch from the plating anode, the less silver is plated; e.g., the plating is far from uniform.