Conversion of The Week: How Much Is The Statue of Liberty Worth in Copper?

"The Statue of Liberty ("Liberty Enlightening the World" by Frèdèric Aguste Bartoldi) in New Jersey waters outside New York Harbor is sheathed in copper of average thickness 2 mm. The statue is 50 m high and some 80 metric tons of copper was required for its fabrication. It is probable that few projects before or since the Statue`s construction in 1876-1885 ever required as much copper."


Here is copper prices per pound

Copper Scrap USA
Most Recent COMEX $/LB   Dec 3.3500 16 Dec  17:14 NY Mar 3.3550 16 Dec  17:14 NY May 3.3420 16 Dec  16:35 NY		USA Consumer Avg $/LB  Bare Bright 3.291 Nov 07   #1 Wire / Tube 3.206 Nov 07

The questions to your student could be.


1) How much is the total amount of copper worth in the Statue of Liberty?
2) If that amount were divided among the population of the U.S. how much would each citizen recieve?
3) From here the educator could ask the question, is the Statue of Liberty worth the sum of its metals or does it represent something more?

Warm-up Activity Involving Time

I love my Think Geek Math Clock! But even if you haven't purchased the clock yet, you can still implement the idea. Simply draw a circle on a piece of paper, add a problem and ask your students to draw the answer in time. As you can see in the problem below, the time is 4:00.

Water Project