Introduction

Specific gravity, Gs , of a soil can be defined as the ratio of the mass of a given volume of
soil particles at a stated temperature to the mass of an equal volume of distilled water. Specific
gravity is the ratio of the weight in air of a given volume of a material at a standard temperature
to the weight in air of an equal volume of distilled water at the same stated temperature. Specific
gravity is defined as the ratio of the unit weight of soil solids to unit weight of water. The
Specific Gravity is needed for various calculations purposes in Soil Mechanics, e.g. void ratio,
density and unit weight
Objectives
To determine the specific gravity of fine grained soil in laboratory.
Apparatus
1.
2.
3.
4.

Density bottle of 50 ml capacity with stopper.

Electronic balance sensitive to 0.01g
Vaccum source
Wash bottle filled with dearied distilled water

Materials
Fine grained soil sample

Procedure

1. The density bottle is washed thoroughly with distilled water to clean, drain the water and
allowed it to dry.
2. The mass of the empty cleaned bottle, M1, with its stopper is weighed.
3. 10 grams of oven-dried soil is added into the density bottle. The bottle and its content
with stopper, M2, are weighed.
4. The bottle is filled with deaired distilled water half full, so that the soil is fully soaked.
Do not fill it completely, as the content must be agitated under vacuum.
5. By subjecting the contents to a partial vacuum, the entrapped air is removed.
6. The bottle is then completely filled with deaired distilled water and closes it with stopper.
The bottle and its contents are weighed as M3.
7. The bottle is emptied and cleans it thoroughly. The bottle then is filled with distilled
water and put on the stopper. The bottle needs to be wiped dry from the outside before
weighed as M4.

Result

Determination
1. Density bottle number
2. Mass of density bottle, M1 (g)
3. Mass of bottle + dry soil, M2 (g)
4. Mass of bottle + soil + water, M3

1
50ml
27.8g
37.7g
82.0 g

2
50ml
26.8g
37.0g
81.9g

3
50ml
28.4g
38.6g
83.3g

(g)
5. Mass of bottle + water, M4 (g)
Specific Gravity, Gs

76.2g
2.41

76.0g
2.37

77.6g
2.26

Specific Gravity, Gs

M2 M1______
(M2 M1) (M3 M4)

Calculations:
Sample (Specific Gravity for determination 1):
Gs

37.7-27.8

(37.7-27.8) (82.0-76.2)
Gs

2.41

DISCUSSION

From this experiment the specific gravity of kaolin obtained is 2.72. This value is
calculated using formula;

Gs = _______M2 M1______
(M4 M1) (M3 M2)

Where;
M1 = mass of density bottle.
M2 = mass of density bottle + dry soil.
M3 = mass of density bottle + soil + water.
M4 = mass of density bottle + water only.

The actual specific gravity of soil lies between 2.70 2.80. Therefore, the
experiment value
obtained is reasonable. There are several errors that may encounter during
conducting the experiment such as:
1. While weighing the sample, some sample fall on the electronic balance. Hence,
causing
the value to be unstable and give us the wrong value instead of the correct one.
2. In the laboratory, we are provided with the 1 decimal place electronic balance. To
get
more accurate value while weighing, we should use 2 decimal place instead of the
one
decimal electronic balance.
3. The error also might due to the presence of foreign material that was inside the
bottle.
Therefore we should clean up the bottle before using it.