Common

Cents Warmup Solution

In this exercise, you will investigate physical properties of the U.S. Lincoln one-cent coin, commonly known as a penny. By doing so, you will apply basic scientific reasoning skills and gain experience making measurements with common laboratory instruments and properly reporting results. Watch the instructional videos about using a Vernier caliper and mass balance, read the upper/lower bound uncertainty document, and answer the following questions: What properties of the penny can be measured directly with the caliper? a) diameter b) mass c) density d) thickness e) weight f) year of manufacture What properties of the penny can be measured directly with the mass balance? a) diameter b) mass c) density d) thickness e) weight f) year of manufacture What is the typical uncertainty in the caliper measurement? Answer: 0.005 cm What is the typical uncertainty in the mass balance measurement? Answer: 0.1 g Define the pennys density in terms of the correct combination of any of the variables d (diameter), m (mass), t (thickness), W (weight), and (y) year of manufacture: m 4m ! = = 2 V "d t To determine the upper bound uncertainty of the density, which bounds of the following variables should be used? a) upper bound of mass b) lower bound of mass c) upper bound of diameter d) lower bound of diameter e) upper bound of thickness f) lower bound of thickness To determine the lower bound uncertainty of the density, which bounds of the following variables should be used? a) upper bound of mass b) lower bound of mass c) upper bound of diameter d) lower bound of diameter e) upper bound of thickness f) lower bound of thickness