IES La Senda (Getafe) 2ºESO Physics and Chemistry

Unit 1

Density
Objective of the practice
Find out which substance is a liquid by calculating its density.

Essential theory
Matter is anything that has mass and occupies a volume. The mass is related to the amount of
matter that a body has, while the volume is the space that said body occupies.

Mass and volume are properties common to all bodies, so they are general properties of matter,
but they do not serve to identify the substance from which they are formed. However, there are
other properties that do allow the substance to be identified. They are called characteristic
properties and one of them is density.

The density of a body (d) is the relationship between the mass of a body and the volume that the
body occupies. In SI, density is measured in kg/m3.

Density is a derived magnitude because it depends on two others: mass and volume.

The following table shows the densities of some substances measured at 20°C.

Materials
Objects, water, precision scale, measuring cylinder.

Experimental method
We measure the mass of an object whose density we wish to know using a scale.

We measure its volume with a measuring cylinder, measuring horizontally from the lowest point of
the water’s surface.

Finally, we divide the mass of the object by its volume.

Results
The substance is:
Analysis of results
Does the result obtained coincide exactly with that indicated in the table?
If not, write down the possible causes.

Questionnaire
1. What is the difference between general properties and characteristic properties of matter?

2. Why is density said to be a derived quantity? Give some more examples of derived
magnitudes.