Lauren Lamberton

Block 6 Biology
November 5, 2012

Density Lab
Density has multiple applications in real-life situations, other
than just science labs. For example, in plumbing, the density of the
fluid (often water) is used to find the correct pump needed to allow
the fluid to flow through the pipes. In science, density is often found
to discover more information about the elements. The elements we
found the densities of were the following: copper, lead, silicon, and
zinc. We found the densities of these metals using the overflow
method. In the overflow method, water is used to flow out of an
overflow cup when an element is added to the water. This is just one
method that can be used to find the density of a certain object.

Problem:
What are the densities of copper, lead, silicon, and zinc when using
the overflow method?

Hypothesis:
I predict that when we find the densities using the overflow method,
the lead will be the most dense, followed by copper, then silicon,
making zinc the least dense metal.

Materials:
-paper towels
-scale
-overflow cup
-water
-small beaker

-calculator

-copper
-lead
-silicon
-zinc
-weigh boat
-small graduated cylinder

Procedure:

1) Place weigh boat on scale and zero it out.

2) Pour metal of choice into a weigh boat and place it on the scale.
3) Record the mass of the metal in grams (g).
4) Fill overflow cups with water until they overflow into small
beaker.
5) Once the water stops flowing, pour the metal into the overflow
cup.
6) When the dripping comes to a stop, pour the water into the
graduated cylinder and record the volume in milliliters (ml).
7) Repeat steps 1-5 for each of the four metals twice (so there are
two trials for each metal).
8) Find and record the densities (on a calculator) for each of the
metals using the formula density=mass/volume.
9) Find and record the average densities for each of the metals by
using the formula avg. density=1st density+2nd density/2.
10) Record the book densities for each of the metals (lead: 11.4
g/ml, copper: 8.96 g/ml, zinc: 7.13 g/ml, silicon: 2.33 g/ml).

11) Find and record the percent error for each of the metals by
using the formula % error=avg. density-book density/book
density.

Data:
1st Trial
Element

Mass (g)

Volume (ml)

Lead

145.1

13

Density
(g/ml)
11.7

Copper

104.1

15

6.9

Zinc

67.1

14

4.8

Silicon

22.8

22

Element

Mass (g)

Volume (ml)

Lead

144.7

14

Density
(g/ml)
10.3

Copper

105

17

6.2

Zinc

65.7

12

5.5

2nd Trial

Silicon

25.9

23

1.1

Book density
(g/ml)
11.4

% Error

Lead

Avg. density
(g/ml)
11

Copper

6.6

8.96

26%

Zinc

5.2

7.13

27%

Silicon

1.05

2.33

52%

Final Results
Element

3%

Conclusion:
Overall, my hypothesis was almost completely accurate. The only
error was I had stated that I thought zinc would be the least dense
metal, whereas this was not the case. The least dense metal was
silicon, therefore zinc was the 3rd dense. The largest percentage of
error was with the silicon results, with 52%. Fortunately, the smallest
percentage of error was with the lead results, with 3%. See the table
for more information about the differences of the book densities and
the average densities.