When a stone is placed in a graduated cylinder containing 25.0 ml of water, the water level rises to 38.3 ml. If the mass of the stone is 21 grams, what is its density?

Answer 1

This is asking you to calculate density from the mass (grams) and volume (mL). Here are the steps to solve this problem:

1) Calculate the mass of the stone by seeing how much it causes the water level to rise (in mL). This means taking the final volume reading (the bigger one) and subtracting the initial volume reading (the smaller one). Now you have the volume of the stone.

2) Now you calculate density, which is mass per unit of volume. You do this by dividing the mass in grams of the stone by the volume of the stone (which you calculated in step 1). You get a number, and the units will be g/mL.