Density Lab Justin Ritenburgh Sullivan Tomich October 2013 Materials: unknown metal #1, #2, #3, graduated

cylinder, water, electronic scale, paper towels, calculator, notebook

Procedure: 1. Obtain samples of one of the unknown metals along with other materials 2. Measure the mass of the unknown metal with the electronic scale 3. Record mass 4. Measure volume of unknown metal by placing in graduated cylinder filled with water and measuring displacement by subtracting initial volume from final volume 5. Record volume 6. Calculate density of unknown metal using recorded mass and volume with D=m/v 7. Repeat steps 1-6 with each of the three samples 8. Repeat steps 1-7 with each unknown metal

We predict that the 1st metal is aluminum, the 2nd metal is copper, and the 3rd metal is lead.

Metal 1:
Aluminum

Mass (g)

Initial Volume (mL)

Final Volume (mL)

Density (g/mL)

Average Density (g/mL)

Error

% Error

Accepted Density

Sample 1

44.6

63

79

2.79

2.72

.09

3%

2.699

Sample 2

53.4

65

85

-.029

1%

Sample 3

35

64

77

.009

.3%

Density Lab Justin Ritenburgh Sullivan Tomich October 2013

Metal 2: Copper Mass (g) Initial Volume (mL) Final Volume (mL) Density (g/mL) Average Density (g/mL) Error % Error Accepted Density

Sample 1

58.5

68

75

8.36

8.88

-.54

6%

8.9

Sample 2

91.9

66

77

8.35

-.55

6.2%

Sample 3

69.5

60

67

9.93

1.03

11.6%

Metal 3: Lead

Mass (g)

Initial Volume (mL)

Final Volume (mL)

Density (g/mL)

Average Density (g/mL)

Error

% Error

Accepted Density

Sample 1

108.5

39

48

12.05

11.31

.65

5.7%

11.4

Sample 2

120.1

62

73

10.92

-.48

4.2%

Sample 3

120.4

59

70

10.95

-.45

3.9%

Density Lab Justin Ritenburgh Sullivan Tomich October 2013

Density Lab Justin Ritenburgh Sullivan Tomich October 2013

Conclusion: Our hypothesis was that the first metal was Aluminum, the 2nd metal was copper, and the 3rd metal was Lead. The vertical axis represents the density of each metal in g/mL and the bars represent Accepted Density and Experimental Density. Our measurements were very close to the accepted densities of each metal. As shown in our above tables and graph, our error for Aluminum only ranged from -0.029g to 0.09g (.3 to 3%), -0.54g to 1.03g (6% to 11%) for copper, and -0.48g to 0.65g (3.9% to 5.7%) for Lead. Our error and percent error were most likely caused by inaccuracies in the calibration of our scales as well as human error in reading the graduated cylinder. Also, there could have been water left on the metals from other students doing the experiment. If we could have done anything differently, we would have acquired more accurate measuring tools and thoroughly dried off the samples.

Density Lab Justin Ritenburgh Sullivan Tomich October 2013

Density Lab Justin Ritenburgh Sullivan Tomich October 2013