How heavy is a gold bar approx. 1 inch X 1 inch X 5 inches?

Question

Approximately the size of a stick of butter. Gold bars such as used in the gold shipments of the old west. What size were they actually?

Answer 1

Gold's density is:

19, 320 kg/m^3

Volume of the bar is:

V = 5 inches^3

5 inches^3 = 8.19 x 10^-5 m^3

Then: 19,320 kg/m^3 = x kg/[8.19 x 10^-5 m^3]

So, x = 1.58 kg, or 3.5 lbs.

Beyond the facts you gave I couldn't tell you what the gold bars were actually like at that time....sorry.

Answer 2

They used larger ingots.