Research on Density
Density: Using Experimental Techniques to Solve an Inquiry based problem
ABSTRACT
The topic of this experiment is Density. The objective is to find two ways in which the density of a given object can be determined, and to find out which of the two ways is more accurate and hence better to use in such a case. The two methods used in this experiment are finding the dimensions of the object and water displacement. These are two ways of finding the volume of an object, and they were chosen since the density of an object may be found using its mass and its volume. The experiment yielded two different density values, however when error analysis was conducted, the water displacement method was proven to be more accurate.
INTRODUCTION
Density by definition is the measure of the amount of matter contained in a substance per unit volume of that substance. This tells how compact the matter in the substance is. Density is very important in everyday life as mass and volume alone are not good enough in comparing different substances or objects. For example, 10 kilograms of cotton and 10 kilograms of iron would definitely have the same mass (10 kilograms) but the cotton would have an extremely larger volume than the iron because the matter contained in iron is more closely packed, and thus it will occupy less space than that of the cotton. Density has become the key to building floatation devices such as boats or ships. A long time ago, human beings would have never thought of using a material as heavy as metal to build an object that was expected to float on water, and this was simply because they were concentrating on the mass of metal. Density, however, combines both mass and volume to make a unit of measure that can be used to compare substances more easily. Upon the discovery and utilization of the phenomenon of density, comparing objects of different masses and volumes became much easier. Using these comparisons along with other theories, led to developments in
ABSTRACT
The topic of this experiment is Density. The objective is to find two ways in which the density of a given object can be determined, and to find out which of the two ways is more accurate and hence better to use in such a case. The two methods used in this experiment are finding the dimensions of the object and water displacement. These are two ways of finding the volume of an object, and they were chosen since the density of an object may be found using its mass and its volume. The experiment yielded two different density values, however when error analysis was conducted, the water displacement method was proven to be more accurate.
INTRODUCTION
Density by definition is the measure of the amount of matter contained in a substance per unit volume of that substance. This tells how compact the matter in the substance is. Density is very important in everyday life as mass and volume alone are not good enough in comparing different substances or objects. For example, 10 kilograms of cotton and 10 kilograms of iron would definitely have the same mass (10 kilograms) but the cotton would have an extremely larger volume than the iron because the matter contained in iron is more closely packed, and thus it will occupy less space than that of the cotton. Density has become the key to building floatation devices such as boats or ships. A long time ago, human beings would have never thought of using a material as heavy as metal to build an object that was expected to float on water, and this was simply because they were concentrating on the mass of metal. Density, however, combines both mass and volume to make a unit of measure that can be used to compare substances more easily. Upon the discovery and utilization of the phenomenon of density, comparing objects of different masses and volumes became much easier. Using these comparisons along with other theories, led to developments in
References: Internet Sources (http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/question254.htm) Archimedes ' principle — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0804583.html#ixzz26eAHz5h7