El Centro College

• CHEMISTRY 1405

• Density of Solids and Liquids Purpose To learn how to find the density of solid objects and liquid samples. Connections to What You Already Know About in Life Density is a concept that we experience regularly but rarely actually have to measure. It is common to pick up an object and note that it is heavier than you would expect for its size, or to see an object floating in a liquid and be surprised at high it floats up in the water. Have you ever tried to measure and compare densities? How does the density of water compare to iron or the density of Styrofoam compare to sea water? Vocabulary Density, mass, volume Background Density relates the mass of a material in a given volume. The mathematical formula for density is: or In order to calculate the density of a material, you will need to know both the mass and the volume. There are different procedures to find the volume of a solid. You can find the volume of an object by measuring the dimensions of the object if it is an easy shape to represent and you know the volume formula for the shape. Otherwise, you could find volume by fluid displacement, measuring how much liquid the object moves out of the way when it is submerged.