Ask A Scientist General Science Archive

   
name         G. T. M.
status       educator
age          60s

Question -   Do you have an experiment that shows density, such as
the "Density Bottles?
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You do not say at what age/grade level you are targeting, but here are
several resources:

NEWTON BBS Chemical Archives No. 2002076
http://129.93.84.115/Chemistry/DoChem/DoChem011.html
     This web site illustrates Archimedes principle:
1.    You can weigh a variety of water insoluble substances in air and pour
the substance into a graduated cylinder and observe the increase in the
volume. This is very direct using various metals -- aluminum vs. steel for
example.
2.    Similarly you could weigh an object suspended in air and suspended in
water. The "weight loss" is weight of the displaced water. Since water has a
density of 1 gm/ml you can obtain the density. Compare this density to the
result obtained by method 1.
3.    A Google search turned up this web site that gives a number of
experiments involving density.
     http://aa.uncwil.edu/reeves/onlinelabs/density/index.htm
http://aa.uncwil.edu/reeves/onlinelabs/density/density_exp.htm

Vince Calder
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