Question
Find the length of a side of a cube having a mass of 1.0 kg and the density of nuclear matter, taking this to be 2.3×1017 kg/m32.3\times 10^{17}\textrm{ kg/m}^3.
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Final Answer

1.6 μm1.6\textrm{ }\mu\textrm{m}

Solution video

OpenStax College Physics for AP® Courses, Chapter 31, Problem 6 (Problems & Exercises)

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Video Transcript
This is College Physics Answers with Shaun Dychko. We are going to calculate the side length of a cube that has a mass of 1.0 kilogram and has a density the same as that of nuclear matter so the density of a nucleus, which is 2.3 times 10 to the 17 kilograms per cubic meter. So density is mass divided by volume and the volume of a cube is the side length cubed so we substitute l cubed in place of V and then solve for l cubed by multiplying both sides by l cubed over ρ and then we have l cubed equals m over ρ and l then is m over ρ to the power of one-third so we raise both sides of this to the power of one-third and this is another way of taking the cube root of both sides so l is the cube root of mass divided by density. So that's 1.0 kilogram divided by 2.3 times 10 to the 17 kilograms per cubic meter all to the power of one-third and that is 1.6 micrometers.