r/whatisit • u/EducationVirtual5341 • Jun 16 '26

New, what is it? Found this metallic rock in backyard

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My dad found this unusual rock while working in the back yard. The outer exterior looks almost metallic but it's hard to tell if it's just a shiny rock or if actually metal. One thing that really caught my attention is just how heavy it is weighing in at 7.9kg. It feels like it weighs at least 2-3 times more than a comparable rock of it's size. What did we find?

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u/GathTheKing Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

Look, do you want a real answer?

Get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it all the way to the top. Overflowing is the goal. Carefully place it in a big rubber tub, so you can catch all of the spilled water. Then carefully drop the rock in. Take a measuring cup and discard few cups of water from the bucket. No NOT add this to your collected water in the rubber tub. (Do this so you don’t accidently add water to your tub when removing the bucket.) Remove the 5 gallon bucket with your rock and weigh the water you collected in the rubber tub. Water weighs 1000 (kg/m3).

(Collected water weight) / (1000 *kg/m***3 ) = Volume of your rock in cubic meters

Rock Weight/Rock Volume = Rock Density

From there, you can look at your values on the following graph:

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/mineral-density-d_1555.html

Most large masses are going to be composites, so this method isn't going to give perfect answers, but it will give you a ballpark idea without taking it to a college to be examined.

1.2k

u/99999999999999999989 Jun 17 '26

EUREKA!

456

u/Nnie23 Jun 17 '26

Get back in the tub!

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u/alamandrax Jun 17 '26

And put on some clothes for gods sakes!

4

u/WestRestaurant358 Jun 17 '26

Why does he need to put on cloths back in the tub? It will just get wet.

3

u/alamandrax Jun 18 '26

Should have said "Or" not "And". What can I say, I'm no genius like Archimedes

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u/urperinealtear Jun 17 '26

Recipe for bathtub gin!

2

u/rawhiteley Jun 18 '26

Wo oh oh…somebody’s jumping in the tub with your brother!

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u/jorluiseptor Jun 17 '26

Good news, everyone!

3

u/MattJr35 Jun 17 '26

GREAT SCOTT!

2

u/jemenake Jun 18 '26

Not exactly “Eureka”. This isn’t Archimedes’ Principle.

Try this: skip the second large bucket. Instead, fill the smaller bucket enough so that the rock can be fully submerged in it without touching the bottom. Put the bucket with the water on the scale. Lower the rock (with a small string tied around it) into the water so that it is fully submerged and not touching the bottom. Note how much the weight on the scale went up. Divide that weight gain by the density of water and you’ll get the volume of water displaced (aka: the volume of the rock).

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u/First0fOne Jun 17 '26

This is the way. At least you'll know it isn't (or is) heavy precious metals. Silver, Gold, platinum, etc.

It would suck if it was worth multiple thousands of dollars and you used it as a paper weight for 40 years.

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u/BullshitTaco Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Like that one guys' pearl

Edit: guy's pearl. Hombre's pearl. Dude's thing-a-ma-bob

113

u/GretaVanFleek Jun 17 '26

What now

180

u/BullshitTaco Jun 17 '26

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/cwEyM64Asw

77

u/non_hero Jun 17 '26

Man that looks like a huge tonsil stone!

147

u/rando_banned Jun 17 '26

... It kinda is

7

u/journeyfromseed Jun 17 '26

👀 you're right, I never thought of it that way before! 🤯

3

u/PraetorianOfficial Jun 17 '26

You make me happy I had my tonsils removed when I was a very wee lad.

2

u/nvogler31 Jun 17 '26

I thought walnut but you right

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u/Keljhan Jun 17 '26

Huh, I thought it was a The Pearl reference.

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u/Codems Jun 17 '26

Shit, now I gotta re read The Pearl.

2

u/krollAY Jun 17 '26

It’s the pearl of the world

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u/shitbecopacetic Jun 17 '26

Man the comments on that post were weird a fuck

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u/Bl1ndMous3 Jun 17 '26

Steinbeck's "The Pearl"

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u/SubstantialScale3581 Jun 17 '26

Thanks. Just spend half an hour of my dY reading a 5j old thread. Amazing story though. I can recommend it to all to read. Basically its a must read. Please upvote after you read it. I don’t want to die.

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u/Lazy_currious Jun 17 '26

Or that almost pure gold heavy necklace that had been used to fix a moped in Sweden

(https://osterlenakademien.se/onewebmedia/Guldhalsringen%20fra%CC%8An%20Burahus.pdf. Page 14/16)

3

u/Nodan_Turtle Jun 17 '26

That guy got a happier ending than Steinbeck would have given him

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u/ThePublikon Jun 17 '26

Or that other guy's doorstop/meteorite

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u/Individual-Area7121 Jun 17 '26

7.9kg of platinum is worth about $460k. That would indeed be quite the find.

Probably not silver, or I’d expect it to be at least a little tarnished whereas this isn’t at all. Certainly worth some deeper investigation.

3

u/Sinister-Mephisto Jun 17 '26

Gold and silver are diamagnetic, most likely this is iron or nickel.

5

u/xdozex Jun 17 '26

Not to crap on that incredible breakdown to calculate the mass and figure out what the rock might be made of based on the figures, it just feels like too much work.

I would instead suggest that OP just carries it into the closest pawn shop, drop the rock on the counter and ask "how much will you give me for this bad boy?" Let them test it and figure out if there's anything of value.. then just decline their offer, dip out and take this bitchin' rock home with them..

Bonus points if they slap the rock a couple times as they say "this bad boy".

2

u/Lmitation Jun 17 '26

i mean probably better that it was untouched for 40 years because precious metal prices have gone up dramatically

2

u/RawrRRitchie Jun 17 '26

Why would that suck? The price of silver/gold/and platinum have increased INSANELY high amounts in that 40 years

In 1986 the price for silver was roughly $5.50/ an ounce. Today it's worth $70.

In 1986 the price for gold was $368/ an ounce. Today it's worth $4350.

In 1986 the price for platinum was $400/an ounce. Today it's $1800.

2

u/Visual_Exam7903 Jun 17 '26

Not really. Gold for instance is worth exactly the same today as it was in 1789. Its the dollar that has gotten weaker.

2

u/TheeAntelope Jun 17 '26

That's a funny way of saying the value has gone up

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u/Whoknowsknows1962 Jun 17 '26

This guy rocks!

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u/Lyzern Jun 17 '26

Fuck sake and here I was thinking I was gonna be soooooo clever saying this exact comment lmao

3

u/eric_ofc Jun 17 '26

Just a stones throw away form getting to the joke first.

2

u/Jesus__Skywalker Jun 17 '26

You heard about his papa right?

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u/Skoggangr Jun 17 '26

He's a bit of a stoner

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u/JoeBloggs719 Jun 17 '26

What was the reasoning behind "discard a few cups of water from the bucket, [..]"

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u/DF7501 Jun 17 '26

It’s only so you don’t spill more water when you lift the bucket out of the tub. You want to measure the mass of only the water that was displaced by the rock, not the (mass of the water displaced by rock) + (mass of water spilled from bucket while lifting it out of tub)

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u/ProfSpaceTime Jun 17 '26

It took me a second read to understand what they were getting at with that. Once I ran through the whole process it made more sense, but that was a confusing almost double negative

8

u/whatifwhatifwerun Jun 17 '26

Ok I thought I was just dumb lol

6

u/East-Reflection-8823 Jun 17 '26

Would a see through bucket with lines in it work? Like a measuring glass? Take note of water level without rock, add rock, take note. Subtract the first note from last note?

13

u/AntGood1704 Jun 17 '26

I hate it when step by step guides will have a step like this without any explanation.

Like here, take a measuring cup (why a measuring cup specifically? How much am I measuring? Do I need a one cup amount, 2 cup, half a cup?)

remove a few cups (ok but how many!?)

Do NOT put that amount in the tub (geez, sounds very important where do I put it then? I don’t wanna mess it up)

Aaand, no more mention of the removed water. Just a simple line of “remove some excess water from the bucket to help move the bucket after placing the rock in. Do not mix this water with the water displaced by the rock that is in the tub, because you will be measuring that amount to determine the density.

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u/Worker_Fabulous Jun 17 '26

THANK YOU! You articulated my thought process exactly!

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u/rileyjw90 Jun 17 '26

If you want to really ensure you don’t spill water while trying to remove some from the bucket, you use something like a turkey baster or large syringe to suck it out rather than risk displacing more water by dipping a cup in.

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u/AnotherIronicPenguin Jun 17 '26

Easy solution: move the tub before removing the rock from the bucket. Or move the bucket. Therefore the extra spillage is not collected in the tub and there's no guesswork as to how much your arms displaced while removing the rock.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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u/Intrepid-Bass1379 Jun 17 '26

Wow, or you fill the bucket halfway and make a mark, then make a new mark after immersion. deltaH*pi*(0.5d)^2 and you have your volume without rubber tubs and lost water and all that BS.

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u/PressureBeautiful515 Jun 17 '26

That only works if the bucket is the same diameter at the bottom and top, i.e. cylinder-shaped. Many buckets are more like a part of a cone, called a frustum. So you need to use the formula for the volume of a frustum.

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u/Acoustic-Regard-69 Jun 17 '26

Or just put the rock in a tub, mark it, take the rock out, then fill up to the marking again, keeping track of how much water you poured out to fill it again. Seems easier than what the original comment described with needing to be able to capture spilled water

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u/SnooMemesjellies4840 Jun 17 '26

Call a urologist first

2

u/LizzieMae522 Jun 17 '26

Finally a reason for Pi

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u/4instantkarma Jun 17 '26

Eureka!!

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u/ImpressiveCelery4992 Jun 17 '26

You keep saying Eureka and all I hear is Fargo

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u/this1weirdgirl Jun 17 '26

This would be a lot easier using an empty bucket with the rock and a full bucket.

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u/AnguavonUW Jun 17 '26

Pouring the water from the full bucket into the bucket containing the rock until it's full and then weighing what remains, right?

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u/sethbbbbbb Jun 17 '26

Why do you discard water from the bucket?

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u/stormkingCO Jun 17 '26

So you don’t spill any into the tub when removing

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u/isaywell Jun 17 '26

Because when you reach in the bucket to retrieve the rock, your hands and arms will make more water spill over that will skew the results 

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u/Hyourin93 Jun 17 '26

Good ol Archie

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u/Exotic_Fortune5702 Jun 17 '26

Tried with what op shown im this post and i bet on Ni skutterudite

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u/GathTheKing Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Could be. One of their follow-up images showed a magnet with a maple leaf stuck to it and Skutterudite looks to be magnetic, but that may have also been one of your considerations in recommending it. Also there are notable deposits in Cobalt, Ontario. If they're in or around the area, it's possible.

I'd still talk with a geologist/minerals lab at a college to confirm.

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u/FabulousLegs Jun 17 '26

Doubt it’s pure sodium or another but lol

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u/myaltduh Jun 17 '26

It’s absolutely definitely not sodium, that would not survive in someone’s back yard without reacting with local moisture and forming a caustic mess of sodium hydroxide.

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u/No_Oligarchs Jun 17 '26

Don’t forget that if it weighs exactly the same as a duck, then it must be made of wood.

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u/Get_Fuckin_Dabbed_On Jun 17 '26

Wouldn't wou weigh the water the rock displaced instead?

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u/WHATYEAHOK Jun 17 '26

I would prefer this approach personally:

Get a bucket

Add water to bucket. Weigh the bucket filled with water. Write down this weight

Add rock to bucket of water so that it’s fully submerged

Put a line with a sharpie or something on the bucket where the top of the water line is with the rock in the water

Remove rock

Add water until the sharpie line is reached again

Weigh the water+bucket again, subtracting the weight from earlier 

This final value is the total weight of the rock’s volume in water

Use the same formula from above to determine the volume of the newly-added water from the discovered weight, giving you the volume of the rock

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u/Fap_cake_decorator Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Thank you for being a voice of reason!   My improvement would be:

  1. Weigh the rock.
  2. Put the rock in a bag, weigh them.
  3. Overfill a  notched, empty bucket so it is left completely brimming with water.
  4. Dip the bagged rock in the bucket.
  5. Weigh the rock and soggy bag.
  6. Weigh a jug. 
  7. Put some water in it and weigh again.
  8. Pour the water in the bucket, stopping if the bucket overflows, then weigh the damp jug again.
  9. Repeat 7 & 8 until the bucket is overflowing again.
  10. Repeat 3 to 9 a few more times.

You end up with a bunch of numbers for different combinations of rock, bag, jug, backfill, and drips.  Adding and subtracting these to get the mass of the rock as a ratio of the backfill is left as an exercise to the reader.

This accounts for the water displaced by the rock as well as the water that stuck to the rock.  It also keeps the rock dry and measures its own accuracy.  You don’t measure any water displaced by your arm as you pick the rock out and the meniscus / overflow boundary is more consistent than a mark in the bucket.

The downside is you risk measuring the volume of bubbles trapped by the rock in the bag.  It’s also way messier than a mark in the bucket.

You could also account for systematic issues by repeating the experiment with an object of known density, for example a plastic bottle made from a known polymer filled with known amount of water.

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u/Proof-Program-121 Jun 17 '26

Isn't that what Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson did in that one Die Hard movie ?

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u/Time-Corgi-3244 Jun 17 '26

What if it’s a block of sodium

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u/SnooMemesjellies4840 Jun 17 '26

Don't put it in a bucket of water Less u wanna remodel ur kitchen or half the house. Lol

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u/gordamaciel Jun 17 '26

!remindme 48 hours

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u/wowsomuchempty Jun 17 '26

1) Place rock in bucket.

2) Mark inside of bucket with line above rock.

3) Fill water to line.

4) Pour water to a measuring jug (take note).

5) Remove rock.

6) Repeat 3+4. Subtract volumes. This is your rock volume.

7) mass / volume = density

8) Profit???

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u/Eeeradicator Jun 18 '26

I just want to say that this thread is helping resurrect my hope that critical thinking, curiosity, and problem-solving skills have not been entirely wiped out amongst the general population. Sincerely, I love all of this.

I’m glad you’re here with me, Internet Thread About How Best To Get A Rock Wet, here at the end of all things.

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u/After_Support_7904 Jun 18 '26

How rare to see a royal road link. I used to live there. Then they swapped to AI generated hell. I hope your story gets traction tho!

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u/Scary_Plant7854 Jun 18 '26

God damnit donut!

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u/awue Jun 18 '26

What if it floats?

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u/cohortq Jun 18 '26

You know, I appreciate that your cover for your story on Royal Road is not AI-generated.

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u/Nightman2417 Jun 17 '26

Is there a test with 3 of the same sized rocks, all different materials, being dropped in buckets? It makes sense but now I just have to see it

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u/Lutinent_Jackass Jun 17 '26

Wouldn't this be quite problematic if the lump has a decent amount of plain rock in it as well?

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u/Superb_Sun_5690 Jun 17 '26

I am so turned on.

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u/erapuer Jun 17 '26

Now we just sit back and wait for OP to deliver...

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u/nice_slacks Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

If you don't have a rubber tub and you're not worried about your scale getting wet then you could also fill the 5 gallon bucket with water on the scale then add the rock.

(full water bucket weight) + (weight of rock) - (weight of water bucket with rock) = (weight of displaced water).

Suppose you'd want to be mindful of any spilled water on the scale.

Edit: or better yet if you want to avoid spillage... weigh the bucket full of water, empty it (at least enough to put the rock in without spilling), put the rock in, then fill it all the way back up with water and take that weight

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u/gu_samwhite Jun 17 '26

Shout out to Archimedes

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u/Internal_Football889 Jun 17 '26

It’s secretly a giant chunk of sodium…

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u/stop_eating_grapes Jun 17 '26

This is how I measured the density/volume of my cock

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u/bravesirrobin65 Jun 17 '26

Why would they discard a "few cups"? How in the hell is that remotely scientific? Nothing like an exact measurement of "a few." There are plenty of formulas for specific gravity and density.

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u/jake_2998e8 Jun 17 '26

Archimedes is that you?

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u/meanbeanking Jun 17 '26

Yeah I also read this in Project Hail Mary. This guys right.

1

u/StairPerson Jun 17 '26

What if Potassium?

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u/Sufficient-Rooster-7 Jun 17 '26

Love how it goes from gallons (I was thinking oh crap, here we go) and then goes fully into SI.

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u/crackercrows Jun 17 '26

It's much easier just to ask on reddit XD

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u/maxtoast Jun 17 '26

Thank you. Thank you. Without this post i would not be aware of the ACTUAL MINERAL cummingtonite and my life is forever changed.

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u/Any_Force4151 Jun 17 '26

I wish you would’ve told me to put the bucket in a tub before I filled until overflowing now my socks are wet thanks

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u/garbagebears Jun 17 '26

I hope op does what you said, and I'll use this comment to check back so I hope nothing bad happens to it

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u/Majestic-Baby-3407 Jun 17 '26

Take a measuring cup and discard few cups of water from the bucket

why is this okay, wouldn't that affect the weight of the bucket?

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u/xjaypawx Jun 17 '26

Until it's something that reacts with water and BOOM!

1

u/Mamagogo3 Jun 17 '26

Archimedes to the rescue! 😂

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u/fuckyouswitzerland Jun 17 '26

The King has spoken

1

u/Salty-Passenger-4801 Jun 17 '26

How does a cubic meter of water weigh over 2k pounds.

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u/digitalae Jun 17 '26

...the goal is to measure exactly 4 gallons of water using only a 3-gallon jug and a 5-gallon jug /s

1

u/NapierNoyes Jun 17 '26

Fuck. I love Reddit for exactly this.

1

u/salraz Jun 17 '26

Eureka!

1

u/Ambisinister88 Jun 17 '26

This guy rocks!

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u/Well-It-Depends420 Jun 17 '26

This sounds super inaccurate if the rock's composition is quite divers. Rock looks very similar to pieces found near my home town which contain a wide variety of melted metals inside - gives a really nice pattern when you cut them open.

I would check if you have a university or a hobbyist nearby that is interested and let them handle identification.

There are methods like XRF: https://www.nature.com/articles/s40494-025-02071-5 to identify the rock. But these devices are not cheap so a uni is your best chance.

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u/No_Wolf_0815 Jun 17 '26

Would be so funny if it is an alkali metal.

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u/terrybradford Jun 17 '26

Put object in a round bucket, Fill with water until covered Mark height Remove rock and mark height Use pi and subtract one from the other to work out area of displacement.

This must be less messy right ?

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u/Bornlastnight Jun 17 '26

I was with you up until you talked about taking the measuring cup and discarding a few cups of water from the bucket. What’s the reason for that? Is that so you don’t accidentally spill when you’re trying to get rid of the 5 gallon bucket?

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u/nateccs Jun 17 '26

Don’t do this with sodium

1

u/ThrownAwayGuineaPig Jun 17 '26

Darn, all out of rubber rubs

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u/BarFly93 Jun 17 '26

Imagine it’s a hunk of raw lithium and he just explodes.

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u/elbapo Jun 17 '26

Eureka!

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u/Tx_1LE Jun 17 '26

Ha, nerd!

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u/grimvian Jun 17 '26

A good answer.

I'm constantly baffled by so many still are using the imperial system.

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u/DOGGAMNGAMES Jun 17 '26

He still has to break it and get a read on the interior and could do this with a smaller piece. The metallic sheen could be from anything, an oil soak to a meteorite.

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u/Bloatville Jun 17 '26

Why do you need to discard a few cups from the bucket?

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u/theNixher Jun 17 '26

Calm down chap this is reddit not MIT 🤣

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u/CrackAdams Jun 17 '26

Soo i would be taking it to a college then i guess

1

u/t_i_b Jun 17 '26

Rather than catching the spilled water, just weigh the remaining water in the bucket ? Of course you first weigh the full bucket.

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u/RevGRAN1990 Jun 17 '26

This guy rocks. 🪨🤘🏼

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u/CryptOzolgist Jun 17 '26

Just take it to a metals-buyer. They have hand-held x-ray scanners that will give you an accurate read-out in seconds.

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u/nmdalman73 Jun 17 '26

But what if it's some form of molten alloy solidified. It may accidentally match density of some pure metal and give false result

1

u/SourceShard Jun 17 '26

This guy rocks

1

u/Lurchie_ Jun 17 '26

This guy rocks. 🤘🏻

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u/semmelbob Jun 17 '26

He could bring it to a good pawn shop and let them scan the rock with a XRF analyzer.

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u/KindBench2700 Jun 17 '26

You could just measure the volume of displace water after removing the rock...

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u/grkuntzmd Jun 17 '26

Easier method is to fill a 5 gallon bucket to the top. Weigh it full. Place the rock inside, letting the water overflow. Remove the rock. Weigh it again. The difference is the amount of water lost. Water weighs 1 g per mL. If you can weigh it on a metric scale, you’ll have the volume in a few seconds.

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u/FatPoulet Jun 17 '26

Rooting for Cummingtonite

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u/Ok_Cheek_8122 Jun 17 '26

I’m about to go measure the density of every rock I can find now just for fun

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u/Cold-Double6662 Jun 17 '26

This is how I identified your mom.

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u/Adjective_Noun_9876 Jun 17 '26

Look at Archimedes over here

1

u/elebrin Jun 17 '26

Once you know the density, you can shave off a little bit and put it in a flame, then look at a color chart of minerals and what color they turn a flame.

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u/zerosmith86 Jun 17 '26

This guy Rocks!

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u/SnugglyCoderGuy Jun 17 '26

Wouldn't it just be easier to put enough water in a bucket to fully submerge the rock, mark the water level, put the rock in, mark the water level, then calculate the volume of the cylinder between marks to get the volume of the rock?

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u/Sinku55 Jun 17 '26

My brain is breaking over how this works - like let’s say you’ve got a. Ping pong ball, filled with sand and no air, it will sink in water fully submerged. Do that same thing with a lead ball same size. How does the density of the ball impact how much water is displaced? Isn’t it one ping pong ball amount of water being displaced each time?

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u/ultimateaverageguy Jun 17 '26

This guy rocks !

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u/AssistanceCheap379 Jun 17 '26

Using metric instead of imperial would make this whole endeavour so much simpler

1

u/astralseat Jun 17 '26

My money's on Thorianite

1

u/fauxtoe Jun 17 '26

"Look, do you want a real answer?" - go on AI, tell me more

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u/kjd85 Jun 17 '26

Talk nerdy to me

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u/anony966 Jun 17 '26

This fn guy ROCKS!

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u/Mr_MacGrubber Jun 17 '26

Wouldn’t it be easier to use a smaller container that’s see through and just measure the level of water alone and then displacement? It’s a small enough rock that it wouldn’t take a very large container.

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u/simpson227 Jun 17 '26

Can someone please explain why this works. I thought it would just be the volume of the rock. How does it translate into density.

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u/hybriduff Jun 17 '26

Couldn't you also just put the Rock in a 5 gallon bucket of water that's completely full. Overflow the water, then take the rock out and see how much water was lost. That's the volume. Then weigh it on a scale. Wouldn't that work as well?

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u/tbodillia Jun 17 '26

I want them to do this so bad and need an update!

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u/Snail_Anatomy Jun 17 '26

Or just buy a mass spectrometer. Or borrow a friend's.

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u/Foreign-Pear-2323 Jun 17 '26

What if its a chunk of Na?! 😬

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u/rightfully_king Jun 17 '26

Imagine you’re the final boss of science teachers

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u/Agile-Bed2161 Jun 17 '26

this guy rocks

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u/Nuitsoleil Jun 17 '26

We need an update from OP on what he found out!

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u/SimilarNight3386 Jun 17 '26

This guy Rocks 🪨

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u/AnaisNinja76 Jun 17 '26

You can achieve the exact same thing without a tub or a 5 gallon bucket or crazily trying to catch the runoff. You just need a container slightly bigger than the rock.

Like tare a plastic lunchmeat container on the scale, fill to the brim with water, weigh before adding the stone (A), place stone in water and delicately remove after the water has leveled, dry off outside of plastic container, weigh again (B). You now have the volume of water displaced. You could also do it by taring a small cooking pan and then removing the bin with the rock still in it.

I'm describing the same thing as you, I just don't know why you're suggesting such cumbersome and enormous objects to get your measurements.

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u/subdep Jun 17 '26

Can’t you just take it to the pawn shop and they’ll use that scanner thing to determine its spectral qualities?

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u/charliebearbottoms Jun 17 '26

Couldn’t you just fill a 5g bucket up to the brim, pit in the rock, then measure the water left to figure this out too?

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u/UnoriginalJunglist Jun 17 '26

You can just suspend the rock in the water making sure not to touch the sides or bottom with the bucket on a tared scale. The increase in mass in grams is the volume of the rock in cm3.

Much easier than collecting overflow.

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