The bricks are denser than the feathers because their mass is packed into a smaller volume. However, a metric ton of feathers will occupy a volume of almost 400 million cm 3 (about the size of four tractor trailer trucks), while a metric ton of bricks will occupy only one-half million cm 3 (about the size of a large-screen TV). One metric ton of either feathers or bricks will have an identical mass of 1,000 kilograms (one metric ton). Since different substances have different densities, density measurements are a useful means for identifying substances.įor example, how could you distinguish a metric ton of feathers versus a metric ton of bricks, shown in Figure 1, if you could not see them? Figure 1: Bricks and feathers. Density is also affected by the atomic mass of an element or compound. It is important to remember, though, that this relationship is not just about how closely packed together the atoms of an element or the molecules of a compound are. The more mass an object contains in a given space, the more dense it is. Density is a physical property of matter that expresses a relationship of mass to volume. What is density?Īrchimedes had used the concept of density to expose the fraud. It turned out that the craftsman had been defrauding the King! Legend has it that Archimedes was so excited about his discovery that he ran naked through the streets of Sicily shouting "Eureka! Eureka!" (the Greek word for "I have found it!"). He found that more water spilled over the sides of the tub when the craftsman's crown was submerged. Because a measure of silver occupies more space than an equivalent measure of gold, Archimedes placed the craftsman's crown and a pure gold crown of equivalent mass in two tubs of water. This fact suddenly provided him with a method for differentiating a mixed silver and gold crown from a pure gold crown. He realized that the amount of water that spilled was equal in volume to the space that his body occupied. As he entered the pool, he noticed that water spilled over the sides of the pool. Archimedes thought about the problem while relaxing in a bathing pool. Sometime around 250 BCE, the Greek mathematician Archimedes was given the task of determining whether a craftsman had defrauded the King of Syracuse by replacing some of the gold in the King's crown with silver. Understanding Scientific Journals and Articles.Using Graphs and Visual Data in Science.Scientists and the Scientific Community.Scientific Notation and Order of Magnitude.The Case of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Camillo Golgi.Factors that Control Earth's Temperature.Plates, Plate Boundaries, and Driving Forces.Solutions, Solubility, and Colligative Properties.Y-Chromsome and Mitochondrial DNA Haplotypes.Absorption, Distribution, and Storage of Chemicals.
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