A graduated cylinder contains 24.0 mL of water. What is the new water level after 38.2 g of silver metal with a density of 10.5 g/mL is submerged in the water?

Answer 1

This is an example of Archimedes' principle (Google it).

We will first use the density of the material (10.5 g/ml) to calculate the VOLUME of the material.

38.2 g x 1 ml / 10.5 g = 3.64 ml (note how units of g cancel, leaving units of ml)

Next, we will add this volume to the original volume of water to get the final volume in the cylinder:

24.0 ml + 3.64 ml = 27.64 ml

Finally, we will correct for significant figures to get our final answer:

Since 24.0 ml has only one decimal place, and since we are adding values, that dictates our sig.figs.

27.64 ml rounded to 27.6 ml (final answer)