Chemistry help
To measure the volume of a small cylindrical piece of an unknown metal, you fill a graduated cylinder with a small amount of water, and carefully place the metal into the cylinder. Before the metal was added, the cylinder had 4.71mL of water. After you added the metal, the top of the metal piece was above the top of the water. The water line was at the 9.14mL mark. Will the density you calculate using the change in volume be too big or too small? Explain how you can tell.
I was leaning more towards the density being too small, as the metal is not fully submerged in the water. However, after spending several minutes re-reading the question and thinking it over, I re-called that density is an intensive property and that it would remain a constant value, regardless the size of that metal. However, I don't think that has anything to do with the mass of the metal...
o.o Can someone please shed some light?
2 Comments • Newest first
@klu180: DUH! That makes perfect sense, thank you so much! Now that I think about it... that was so easy. Can't believe I didn't think of that.
The calculated density should be larger I believe. The metal was not completely submerged, therefore the water displacement method did not accurately measure the volume of the metal; the volume would be less because the top part's volume was not found. Mass is constant, so since volume is smaller that what it should be,
mass / smaller volume = bigger density