Density

Overview

Link to Experience: Density

Topics: chemistry, density, measurements

Grades: 9-12

Standards:

Duration to complete: 10-15 minutes

Learning outcome: Students will understand how to visualize and calculate density. Students will apply their knowledge to determine the unknown mass, volume, or density given the other two measurements. They will also understand how objects with different densities float or sink in water.

In the Classroom

Pre-Experience (Things to Look Out For):

• What does it mean for something to be dense?

• Why does oil float on water?

• If heavy object takes up the same amount of space as light object, what object is denser?

Post-Experience (Things to Think About):

• If an object can float on water, what does that tell you about its density?

• For a fixed density, are mass and volume inversely or directly proportional? What about for a fixed mass or fixed volume?

• What happens when an object is placed into water and the object's density is equal to the density of water?

• How might the densities of a gas, liquid, and solid compare to each other?

• When might the density equation or knowing a substance's density be useful?