For those that think that it would have taken a Hercules to carry the plates, I would just like to add a bit more to my brother's answer. Joseph Smith was a rather large man. He stood at well over six feet tall. Add to this the fact that for most of his life up to this time he had been obliged to earn his living through hard physical labor. Back then, farming was nothing like it is today. They did not have machines to do most of the labor for them. Most of the work on a farm had to be done using the farmer's own muscle power. True they had draft animals to pull things (plows, wagons, etc.), but these animals could not cut down trees and dig out their stumps to clear the land for farming. Nor could they plant and harvest the crops, chop the firewood, feed the livestock, or do any of the other similar jobs that must be done around a farm. Such labors would have greatly developed Joseph Smith's physical strength. Indeed, we know that Joseph was a strong man because of what others have said about him. He is said to have loved games that involved tests of physical strength (pulling sticks and various forms of wrestling). Those who knew him and commented on this part of his nature also mentioned that Joseph rarely, if ever, lost such competitions. So, to suggest that it would have been difficult for Joseph to have carried a load of 50 to 80 pound is absurd. ************ "free4life79: according to the book of mormon and the dementions listed they were over 200 pounds.Nice try though!" From this response and the one you gave to my brother's answer, it is obvious that you did not follow the link in his answer and read what it said. So let me summarize. The calculation that the plates weight over 200 pounds is based on a faulty assumption, namely that the plates are the same weight as a solid block of 24 karat gold that is the same estimated size as the plates were reported to be. There are several reason why this is faulty. First of all 24 karat gold would have been too soft to serve the purpose of plates on which to keep a record. As a matter of fact, no where is it stated that the plates were made of gold. The Book of Mormon only says that the plates were made of ore and the witnesses state that they had the "appearance of gold" So, it is quite possible that the plates had no gold in them at all. They could have been of some alloy that just looked like gold. Because of this, we can't assume that the metal of the plates had the same density as gold. Thus your estimate of them weighing more than 200 pound take a major hit. The other problem with your assumption is that the plates were not a solid piece of metal, they were a stack of hand-made plates. As such they would not be perfectly flat. Engraving these plates would have further distorted the plates*. Therefore, there would be a significant amount of air space between the plates thus further reducing the density of the stack of plate. So, your weight estimate takes another significant hit. Between these two factors it becomes quite possible that the plates were significantly under 100 pounds. This would make them something that someone of Joseph Smith's known strength could have carried. You really aught to try reading the original sources rather than relying on your anti-Mormon sources. It might keep you from accepting such obviously faulty information. *You can see this effect for yourself. Compare a stack of fresh sheets of paper with stack of papers that have been completely covered, both side, with hand writing. You will see that the stack of written pages don't lie as flat as the fresh sheets. I kept a journal in a book of lined paper during my mission. I didn't completely fill it up. So, you can easily tell where the journal ends in the book just by look at the closed book edge on. There is a lot more space between the page with writing than there is between the pages without writing. Yes, the metal plates would have been thicker than sheets of paper, but they would not have been that much thicker and the writers would have had to press much harder with the stylus as they engraved the words into the them.

If you claim that the plates were 80 pounds, my question would be how did Smith run with them for over 3 miles? I grew up on a farm and was a colleage "177 pound" wrestler, well over 6' tall. No human can run over 3 miles with effectivly a sack of concrete under one arm? Not only this theplates would not have enough physical surface to even record 2-3 dozen english pages of information with any know ancient tounge. Where is any evidence of reformed Egyptian any where as Smith claimed?

Q: How did Joseph Smith carry home the golden plates of the Book of Mormon . . . A: It's an excellent question since the weight of the plates, experts estimate, would have between 100-234 pounds based on their size, form, and composition. We know this because the weight of gold is known: "We do know that gold weighs about 1,204 pounds per cubic foot. Given the dimensions by Smith, some have concluded that the plates could have weighed as much as 234 pounds to as little as 100 pounds. The heavier weight is based on what would probably be the total weight of a solid block of gold measuring the size of Smith's plates. This weight, proponents say, would tend to be unlikely due to "air space" between the uneven plates.This argument becomes tenuous given the soft nature of gold. Plates of gold stacked in the manner described by Smith would easily flatten out, thus displacing any arbitrary "air space" suggested by LDS apologists. Mormon metallurgist Reed Putnam estimates that if the plates were made of pure gold, they would have probably weighed around 100 pounds. Still, this is not at all a reasonable weight that can be carried by even the strongest of New York farm boys. In perspective, that would be like carrying a bag of Portland cement under one's arm." http://www.mrm.org/topics/book-mormon/how-heavy-were-those-gold-plates Q: . . . and how did the witnesses lift them so easily? A: Based on the empirical data it's clear that what they were "hefting" weren't the Golden Plates as Joseph Smith claimed. Speculation has ranged from "bricks" to "slate". Whatever it was the estimated range is between 30-60 pounds: "Different people estimated the weight of the plates differently. According to Smith's one-time-friend Willard Chase, Smith told him in 1827 that the plates weighed between 40 and 60 pounds (18–27 kg), most likely the latter.[165] Smith's father Joseph Smith, Sr., who was one of the Eight Witnesses, reportedly weighed them and said in 1830 that they "weighed thirty pounds" (14 kg).[166] Joseph Smith's brother, William, said that he lifted them in a pillowcase and thought they "weighed about sixty pounds [23 kg] according to the best of my judgment".[167] Others who lifted the plates while they were wrapped in cloth or enclosed in a box thought that they weighed about 60 lbs [23 kg]. Martin Harris said that he had "hefted the plates many times, and should think they weighed forty or fifty pounds [18–23 kg]".[168] Joseph Smith's wife Emma never estimated the weight of the plates but said they were light enough for her to "move them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work".[169] Had the plates been made of 24-karat gold (which Smith never claimed), they would have weighed about 140 pounds (64 kg).[170]" NOTES: [165] ^ Chase (1833, p. 246). [166] ^ Lapham (1870). [167] ^ Smith (1883). [168] ^ Harris (1859, pp. 166, 169). [169] ^ Smith (1879). [170] ^ Vogel (2004, p. 600, n. 65). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_plates Attached: - Mock ups of the Golden Plates

assuming that this event even took place, only a miracle of God could have assisted that man. but again, this is assuming this event even took place.