Density Lab Data

Data: Purple

Material	1	2	3	4
Mass (g)	15.22g	10.95 g	6.50 g	19. 39 g
Volume (ml)	8.5 ml	8 ml	4 ml	14 ml

Data: White

Material	1	2	3	4
Mass (g)	10.09 g	16.60 g	22.85 g	29.38 g
Volume (ml)	5 ml	8 ml	10 ml`	10 ml

Data: Red

Material	1	2	3	4
Mass (g)	5.37 g	9.16 g	15.96 g	12.58 g
Volume (ml)	5 ml	8 ml	17 ml	13 ml

Data Conclusion

The density of the white cylinders were 3.25g/mL.  The density of the red cylinders were .84g/mL, and the density of the purple cylinders were 1.3g/mL.  These types of results are probably a result from many errors that occurred during this lab. 

One error we made is that when we put the material in the graduated cylinder, water splashed out of the graduated cylinder which made our measurements of volume inaccurate.  We also lost track of and mixed up the materials: We weren’t sure which piece we measured first or which measurement of volume went with the mass because while one of us was finding the mass, another person was finding the volume of another material to speed up the process a little bit.  Our third error was that we did not keep the amount of water we used for water displacement constant.  Instead of placing each material in 30mL of water every time we measured volume, we would put the material in different amounts of water each time, causing much confusion and frustration when trying to find the volume.

            One way we can improve this lab is to measure the mass and volume of the material multiple times in order to get a precise reading.  Another way we can improve this lab is to use the same amount of water each time we use water displacement to measure the volume.  Lastly, we should not rush and measure one thing at a time in order to prevent mixing up the measurements.

We determined the volumes of the cylinders by the Water Displacement Method.

To find the density of the cylinders, it was necessary to find the mass on an electronic scale.

One mistake we made was using different amounts of water each time we filled up the graduated cylinder.

A second mistake was allowing water to splash out (as seen on the desk in the photo) when dropping the colored cylinders into the graduated cylinders.