Comparison of the Densities of Coke and Diet Coke

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In this experiment, there were several objectives. First, this lab was designed to determine the difference, if any, between the densities of Coke and Diet Coke. It was designed to evaluate the accuracy and precision of several lab equipment measurements. This lab was also designed to be an introduction to the LabQuest Data and the Logger Pro data analysis database. Random, systematic, and gross errors are errors made during experiments that can have significant effects to the results. Random errors do not really have a specific cause, but still causes a few of the measurements to either be a little high or a little low. Systematic errors occur when there are limitations or mistakes on lab equipment or lab procedures. These kinds of errors cause measurements to be either be always high or always low. The last kind of error is gross errors. Gross errors occur when machines or equipment fail completely. However, gross errors usually occur due to a personal mistake. For this experiment, the number of significant figures is very important and depends on the equipment being used. When using the volumetric pipette and burette, the measurements are rounded to the hundredth place while in a graduated cylinder, it is rounded to the tenth place.
Regarding the densities of Coke and Diet Coke, I believed that the density of coke would be greater than the density of Diet Coke. Because the content of Coke contains more sugar than Diet Coke, it would contain more mass and since density is mass dependent, Coke would be denser than Diet Coke. From the results of the experiment, there was a slight difference between the densities of Coke and Diet Coke. The measurements obtained from the pipette and the graduated cylinder demonstrated that Coke is denser than Diet Coke while Diet Coke was shown to be denser than Coke using the burette. With the pipette, the average density of Coke is 1.02 and the average density of Diet Coke is 0.99. With the graduated cylinder, the average density is 0.976968 and the average density of Diet Coke is 0.95. With the burette, the average density of Coke is 0.99 and the average density of Diet Coke is 1.0. Among the three instruments, the most precise was the graduated cylinder and the most accurate was the volumetric pipette. Since density is defined as mass/volume, changing the volume of Coke or Diet Coke would have changed.

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