Density Is a Fundamental Property of Physical Objects. Chemists Sometimes Use It to Help

Lab: Density

Objective

Density is a fundamental property of physical objects. Chemists sometimes use it to help in the identification of materials. The effects of density are often demonstrated by considering whether an object will float in water. Water has a density very close to exactly 1 g/cm3. When an object has a density greater than 1 g/cm3 then it will not float in water. When its density is less than 1 g/cm3 then it floats. For example, common vegetable oil has a density of around 0.92 g/cm3, which is why Italian salad dressing looks the way it does.

Density is defined as the amount of mass per unit volume and mathematically by the equation D = m/V. The letter D stands for density, m for mass, and V for volume. The SI unit of density is kg/m3 but it will suffice in the lab for us to use g/cm3 (remember, 1 cm3 = 1 mL). The measurement of density requires two pieces of data and therefore requires great care in the making of both measurements so as not to lose precision.

In this lab you will measure the density of several substances. In addition you will use the known density of aluminum (2.70 g/cm3) to measure the thickness of aluminum foil. Successful completion of this investigation will include:

• The density of two of the following, as measured in multiple trials:
  
• Water
• Prepared Salt Water
• Aluminum Shot
• Mossy zinc (irregularly shaped pieces of zinc metal)
• A calculation of the thickness of household aluminum foil
• Neat data tables showing averages, precision, and percent error

Materials

• 10 mL, 50 mL, and 100 mL graduated cylinders
• lab balance
• water

• lab spatula
• pen
• weighing boats
• lab notebook or paper

• mossy zinc
• aluminum shot
• salt water

Background

Density can be hard to get a solid mental concept of. It is what chemists call an intensive property. That means that the density of a material does not depend on how much of it you have. Other examples of intensive properties include temperature, concentration, color, odor and molar mass. You cannot add intensive properties together. If you have 2.70 g of aluminum it has a volume of 1 cm3 (at ordinary room temperature and pressure). If you have 2,700 g of aluminum it has a volume of 1,000 cm3. If you have 1 m3 (1 × 106 cm3) of aluminum it has a mass of 2,700 kg. Work all of these out using D = m/V and you will always get a result of 2.70 g/cm3. No matter how much aluminum you add, the density, an intensive property, does not change.

Contrast intensive properties with extensive properties: measurements like mass, volume, height, width, and depth all depend on the size of a particular object. These measurements are extensive properties. You can always add more volume or mass.

Density is often confused with weight. We often say that lead is heavy (ask your teacher if there is a piece of lead around to use as an example). But which is heavier, one pound of lead or one pound of feathers? … So weight is not the difference between them. Try another question: which is heavier, 1 liter of lead or 1 liter of feathers? Clearly, even if you compressed the feathers to the maximum degree possible, they would probably never weigh as much as the lead, assuming you have the same volume of each. So the substance lead is not heavy (an extensive property), it is dense (an intensive property). Still not convinced? Answer this: is 0.0001 g of lead heavy?

Procedure

You must find the density of two substances, one liquid and one solid. You will need a different procedure for each object that you measure. The procedure for this lab is completely up to you.

Here are a few things you need to know how to do in order to be successful in answering the objective questions.

Do multiple trials for each type of substance. At least four trials should be made in which you measure the volume and mass of the sample. Vary the size of the sample from one to the next: start with a small sample and make each of the others bigger than the last. Try 10 g, 20 g and 30 g, for example.

Irregularly Shaped Objects

When something is too oddly shaped to make simple measurements of its size you must resort to the method of Archimedes: immerse it in water. The amount of water displaced by an object is equal to its volume. When using this method beware of bubbles! Do everything you can to reduce the number of air bubbles before reading the volume. Why do you think you should do this?

Very Dense Materials (like the zinc)

Due to the fact that dense materials have a smaller volume for the same mass than less dense materials you will find that small samples are not useful for measuring density. For example, a substance with a density of around 11 g/mL will only change the volume in a graduated cylinder by 1 mL if the mass used is 11 g. This is a small difference and small differences are hard to measure precisely. To obtain more significant figures, and higher precision, use larger samples for the denser materials.

Describe the procedure that your lab group will use:

Density Data Collection

Collect your data in a data table like this. All of your data points should have very different masses from one another. Make each one 10 g or more largerthan the last.

Substance #1: ______

Check-in ______

When you have completed collecting data for one substance check in with your teacher.. Initials will be given for good data collection and calculations.

Substance #2: ______

Check-in ______

When you have completed collecting data for the second substance check in with your teacher before you can move on to the part of this lab. Initials will be given for good data collection and calculations

Analysis:

A link to an Excel spreadsheet has been shared with each of you via Office 365 and also on the Chemistry website. You can download this Excel spreadsheet and enter in your data you collected. This spreadsheet will help you in making graphs of volume vs. mass for each substance.

You can find density two ways: 1. By averaging multiple measurements and 2. By finding the slope fo a line for volume vs. mass.

After you have completed your spreadsheet and graphs, print them out. Then use them to answer the following questions:

1. Average density of substance 1: ______

Average density of substance 2: ______

2. Slope of graph for Substance#1: ______

(with units)

Slope of graph for Substance#2: ______

3. What is the meaning of the slope of the lines?

4. What is the expected value (or standard value) for each density that you measured?

5. How does it compare to your experimentally determined density? In comparing your average calculations to your slope, which is closer to the standard value?

6. Discuss some events and situations that may have affected the accuracy of your data.

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Thickness of Aluminum Foil

Obtain or manufacture three smooth, perfectly rectangular pieces of household aluminum foil. Here are the data you need to collect to calculate the thickness of aluminum foil:

1. length (cm)
2. width (cm)
3. mass (g)

Create a data table below to collect these data. No averages are required.

Check-in ______

Calculate the thickness of the aluminum foil using the density.

First, calculate the volume of material in the sheet:

m m

D = --- so V = --- the density of aluminum of 2.70 g/cm3

V D your answer is the volume in cm3

Next, calculate the thickness, or height, of the aluminum foil:

V = L × W × H and L × W = Area so V = A × H

Therefore

V (cm3)

H (cm) = ---

A (cm2)

Make a data table for the volume in cm3, the area in cm2, the height in cm, and the height in μm. Calculate the average height (in μm) and the range, ± amount, result, and percent error and include them in your data table.

Check-in ______