Which weighs more, feathers or gold?

While we were traveling to Palm Springs yesterday, I was taking advantage of the time to read.

One column in the Sunday paper that I enjoy reading is Ask Marilyn, by Marilyn vos Savant.

I love it when she answer questions sent in by readers even though I rarely get the answer right. A recent question was Which weighs more, an ounce of feathers or an ounce of gold?

Duh. An ounce of gold!

Not so fast, grasshoppers.

As with percentages, where you have to look a little deeper to find the basis for percentages, you had to have extra information to determine which weighs more, the gold or feathers. Would you believe that feathers actually can weigh more than gold? Here's how:

Feathers are weighed in avoirdupois pounds and gold is weighed in troy pounds. To reach a common weight, you have to know that a grain is the same in both avoirdupois weight and troy weight, so a grain of feathers will weigh the same as a grain of gold.

However, an avoirdupois ounce has 437.5 grains while a troy ounce has 480 grains, so an ounce of gold weighs more than an ounce feathers.

But wait! There's more!

An avoirdupois pound has 16 ounces, but a troy pound has 12 ounces, so a pound of feathers weighs more than a pound of gold.

Of course, I'd rather have a pound of gold since it is currently priced at $1,190 an ounce.

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If you're looking for a great San Diego Realtor, well,
let me Google one for you.

I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.

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