Density Lab

Introduction:

Density is a measurement of the amount of mass that fits within a specific volume

(Nagel). Substances with different densities interact in varying ways with their own individual densities. The standard against which the density of different liquids is compared is to that of water. Water has a density of 1.0 g/mL. Any substance with a density greater than this will sink in water, while any substance with a density lesser than this will float on water (Lower). This phenomenon is called buoyancy and this lab will show the relative buoyancies of five different liquids by determining and comparing their densities.

Materials & Methods:

In this lab, the density of several liquids and their relative buoyancies were explored. In order to determine density, the volume and mass of

As the volume remained the same throughout, it was also possible to relate the relative mass to a substance’s buoyancy. With identical volumes of 50 milliliters, it was found that the least dense liquid is baby oil, while the most dense liquid is corn syrup. These differences in density became apparent when all liquids were placed into the same container.

The densest liquid, corn syrup, sunk to the bottom of the container, while the least dense liquid, baby oil, floated on the top of all other liquids. This occurs because the volume of liquid that would displace the same volume of water has a lesser weight than the water so it floats, whereas, when the reverse is true, it sinks (Buoyancy).

Accurate measurements are very important in this experiment. Should a mass or