E N V I R O N M E N T

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1. Calculate the volume of the cube in cm . How many cm

there are in 1 m ?

2. The area of one of the cube’s faces is 1 m . Calculate the area

2 2 2

in cm . Hence nd how many cm there are in 1 m

3. Using a similar method, nd the following:

a) The number of square meters in 1 km

b) The number of cubic millimeters in 1 cm

c) The number of square meters in a square mile

(1 mile = 1,608 m)

d) The number of cubic meters in a cubic light year

15

(1 light year = 9.46 × 10 m).

F O R C E S
Why do objects oat?

If an object is more dense than water, it will sink; similarly, an object

which is less dense, will oat. The reason for this lies in the mass of

water the objects displace.

When a stone is put in water, the level of the water will rise because

the stone displaces it. The weight of the water that is displaced pushes

upwards on the stone. This force is called upthrust. As a result, the

stone will be supported by the upthrust of the water, but because its

own weight is greater it will still sink.

measured measured

weight weight

9.8 N 3.2 N

water

upthrust

6.6 N

The stone has a mass of 1 kg and so its weight is 9.8 N. It has a volume of

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6.7 × 10 m and when it is submerged, it displaces this volume of water

which weighs 6.6 N. As a result, the measured weight is only 3.2 N when it

is submerged. What is the stone’s density?

A wooden block, on the other hand, may have a density that is less

than water. It will sink until it has displaced a weight of water that is

equal to its own weight. At this point, the force of the upthrust from

the water balances the weight of the wooden block so it oats.

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 Whales can grow to be

over 170,000 kg. This

whale would be unable to

suppor t its huge weight

on land; however, the force

of upthrust from the water

around it suppor ts its bulk

Size, mass and density

Imagine the following objects:

●
expanded polystyrene packaging

●
tree

●
bucket of water

●
steel ball bearing

●
person

●
helium balloon.

Sort the objects in approximate order of size.

Now try to sort them in order of mass.

Finally, sort them in density order (Hint: think about which

would oat and which would sink).

M AT T E R
How can you measure density?

The rst person to be credited with nding the density of an object

was Archimedes, a Greek mathematician, scientist, and inventor who

was born in about 287 bc. There is a story which says that the king of

Syracuse, Hiero II, commissioned a golden crown as a gift to the gods.

However, he suspected that the goldsmith had cheated him by mixing

some cheaper silver into the crown. King Hiero asked Archimedes to

determine whether the crown was pure gold, but Archimedes could

not damage the crown in any way as it was a gift for the gods.

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