The mass of an empty beaker had a mass of 25.246g.

Question

The mass of an empty beaker had a mass of 25.246 g. The mass of metal pellets plus

the mass of a beaker and had a mass of 47.734 g. Volume displacement was used to

determine the density of the metal pellets. A graduated cylinder was filled with

distilled water. The initial volume was 30.5 mL. The metal pellets were added to the graduated cylinder and the final volume was 40.8 mL. What is the density of the metal pellets?

Answer 1

We're focusing in on the density of the metal pellets. To do this we need to understand the calculation for density: density = mass / volume. Now we need to calculate how much of the mass and volume is being contributed by the metal so we need to use subtraction to do this calculation.

Mass of metal = mass of beaker and metal - mass of beaker empty = 47.734 - 25.246 = 22.488 g

Volume of metal = volume of water and metal - volume of water = 40.8 - 30.5 = 10.3 mL

Now we can calculate the density of the metal:

Density of metal = mass of metal / volume of metal = 22.488 g / 10.3 mL = 2.183 g / mL