Fundamentals of Chemistry

Question

You found the mass of an irregularly shaped metal piece to be 14.0g. You filled the graduated cylinder to 60.0ml with water then submerged the metal. The graduated cylinder then read 89.2ml What is the density of the metal?

Answer 1

Hello, Christie,

You want to find the density of the metal. Density is mass per unit volume. It could be grams/cm³, kg/ml, or a number of other units. Since the are all related, and interconvertible, let's choose g/ml, primarily since the data are provided in grams and ml.

We have the mass, 14.0 grams. The graduated cylinder rose to 89.2 ml when the sample was added, so the volume change must be due to the metal sample. That volume is (89.2ml - 60ml) 29.2 ml.

We have mass of 14.0 and volume of 29.2 ml, so divide the two to get 14.0g/29.2ml, or 0.479 g/ml density (3 sig figs).

Bob