Science Department

UNITY SECONDARY SCHOOL

PHYSICS

CHAPTER 4: MASS, WEIGHT AND DENSITY

ANSWERS

NAME:_____________________( ) CLASS: _________ DATE: __________

Exercise 4A: Mass and Weight

1. (a) Define mass.

The amount of matter in a body.
________________________________________________________
kg
(b) Write down the SI unit for mass. _________
False
(c) Mass of an object changes with location. True or False? _______

(d) Name one scientific instrument that measures mass.

Electronic balance, sliding mass balance
________________________________________________________

2. (a) Define weight of an object.

The gravitational force acting on a body.
________________________________________________________

(b) Write down the equation equating mass, m, weight, w and acceleration
due to gravity, g.
W=mxg
________________________________________________________
N
(c) Write down the SI unit for weight. _________

(d) Write down one scientific instrument that measures weight.

Spring balance
________________________________________________________

3. Fill in the blanks to find the mass and weight of the box when it is on earth
and on moon.
(Acceleration due to gravity on earth, ge=10 m/s2 and on moon, gm=1.6 m/s2)

(a)
Mass = 40 kg 40 kg
Mass = _________

400 N
Weight =_______ 64 N
Weight =________

Moon
Earth

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Science Department

(b)
Mass = __________
2.5 kg Mass = 2.5 kg

25 N
Weight =_________ 4N
Weight =__________

Moon
Earth

(c) 45 kg
45 kg
Mass = ________ Mass = _______

72 N
Weight =_______
Weight = 450 N

Moon
Earth

(d)
Mass = ________
200 kg Mass = _________
200 kg

2000 N
Weight = _______ Weight = 320 N

Moon
Earth

4. An object has a mass of 10 kg on Earth. What is the weight of the object?

(Acceleration due to gravity on Earth is 10 m s-2.)

W  mg
 10 kg  10 m / s 2
 100 N

5. If the gravitational field strength on earth is 10 N/kg. What is the gravitational

pull on a 6.5 kg object?
W  mg
 6.5 kg  10 m / s 2
 65 N

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6. If the gravitational field strength on moon is 1.6 N/kg. What is the gravitational
pull on a 32 kg object?

W  mg
 32 kg  1.6 N / kg
 51.2 N

7. A box weighs 80 N on Earth. Calculate, in grams, the mass of the object.

W
m
g
80

10
 8 kg  8000 g
8. A box weighs 100 N on Earth. It is then put on a space shuttle and brought to
the moon.

(a) Calculate the mass of the box on the moon.

W
m
g
100

10
 10 kg
(b) Calculate the weight of the box on the moon, given acceleration due to
(moon’s gravity is 1.6 m/s2.)

W  mg
 10 kg  1.6 N / kg
 16 N

Chapter 4: Mass, Weight and Density

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Science Department

UNITY SECONDARY SCHOOL

PHYSICS

CHAPTER 4: MASS, WEIGHT AND DENSITY

ANSWERS

NAME:_____________________( ) CLASS: _________ DATE: __________

Exercise 4B: Inertia

1. Two Falling Metre Rule

 A mass is tied to one end of metre rule B.

 Nothing is done to the other metre rule A.
 The two metre rules are tilted forward a little. A B
 Both rules are released at the same time.

(a) Which metre rule will touch the ground first?

A
________________________________________________________

(b) If the mass is increased, what happen to the time taken for the metre
rule to fall?

It will take a longer time to fall.

________________________________________________________

2. The 2 m Race 2m
cyclist

man
bus

car

start finish

Who do you think will come in first, second, third and last?

man
First: __________________________________________

cyclist
Second: ________________________________________

car
Third: __________________________________________

bus
Last: ___________________________________________

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Science Department

3. Swinging is Forever

 Bob A has a larger mass than B.

 Both pendulums have the same length.

A B

Which pendulum will take the longest time to stop swinging? Why?
A. A has a larger mass.
______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Deduction

4. What is the relationship between mass and the “reluctance to start moving”
of an object?

The larger the mass of an object, the more reluctance for it to start moving.
______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

5. What is the relationship between mass and the “reluctance to stop moving”
of an object?

______________________________________________________________
The larger the mass of an object, the more reluctance for it to stop moving.

______________________________________________________________

6. A heavy lorry has high inertia.

How difficult is it to start it moving and to stop it moving?
To start To stop
A Difficult Difficult
B Difficult Easy
C Easy Difficult
D easy easy
( A )

Chapter 4: Mass, Weight and Density

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Science Department

UNITY SECONDARY SCHOOL

PHYSICS

CHAPTER 4: MASS, WEIGHT AND DENSITY

ANSWERS

NAME:_____________________( ) CLASS: _________ DATE: __________

Exercise 4C: Density

1. Define density of a substance.

It is the mass per unit volume of the substance.
______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

2. Given that a wooden cube of length 10 cm has mass of 600 g, calculate the
density of the wood in g/cm3.
m
D
v
600 g

10 cm  10 cm  10 cm
 0.6 g / cm 3
3. Iron has a density of 7900 kg/m3. What is the volume of 2 kg of iron?

m 2 kg
V  3
 0.000253m 3  2.53  10  4 m 3
D 7900 kg / m

4. Given that the density of air is 1.25 kg/m3, what is the mass of air in a room of
size 6 m by 5 m by 3 m?

m  V  D  6 mx 5 m  3m  1.25 kg / m 3
 112.5 kg

5. A beaker has mass of 88 g when empty. When 20 cm3 of mercury is poured

into it, the total mass of the beaker and mercury is found to be 360 g. What is
the density of mercury in (i) g/cm3, (ii) kg/m3?
360 g  88 g 272
D 
20 cm 3 20
 13.6 g / cm 3

 13600 kg / m 3

Chapter 4: Mass, Weight and Density

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6. A piece of copper weighing 0.537 kg was melted with a piece of iron weighing
0.892 kg. The density of iron is 9.1 g/cm3 and that of copper is 7.8 g/cm3.
What is the density of the alloy formed?

mc  0.537 kg  537 g m I  0.892 kg  892 g

Dc  7.8 g / cm 3 DI  9.1 g / cm 3
537 g 892 g
Vc   68.8cm 3 VI   98.0 cm 3
7.8 g / cm 3 9.1 g / cm 3
537 g  892 g
D  8.57 g / cm 3
68.8 cm 3  98.0 cm 3

7. An empty container has a mass of 88 g.

(a) When it is filled with 40 cm3 of liquid A, the total mass is 116 g.
Calculate the density of liquid A.
116 g  88 g
D  0.7 g / cm 3
40 cm 3

(b) When it is filled with 70 cm3 of liquid B, the total mass is 158 g.
Calculate the density of liquid B.
158 g  88 g
D 3
 1 g / cm 3
70 cm

(c) Draw and label a container below what you will observe when liquid A,
liquid B and a solid C of density 1.2 g/cm3 are put together in the
container.

A
B
C

*8. A copper ball has a mass of 1 kg. Calculate the radius of the ball given that
the density of copper is 8900 kg/m3.

M 1kg
V 
D 8900 kg / m 3
4 3 1
r  m3
3 8900
3
r3  0.03m  3cm
8900  4  

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*9. Explain why a piece of expanded polystyrene feels much lighter than an equal
volume of lead.

Polystyrene has a lower density compare to lead. In a same volume of the expanded
______________________________________________________________
polystyrene, its mass is less than the mass of lead. With the small amount of mass, the weight
______________________________________________________________
is less. Therefore the expanded polystyrene feels lighter than an equal volume of lead.
______________________________________________________________

*10. Air is made up of about 80 % nitrogen and 20 % oxygen by volume. The

densities of air and oxygen are 1.29 kg/m3 and 1.43 kg/m3 respectively. What
is the density of nitrogen?
V A  1m 3 V o  0.2 m 3 V N  0.8 m 3
D A  1.29 kg / m 3 D o  1.43 kg / m 3 1.004 kg
DN 
M A  1.29 kg M o  0.2  1.43  0.286 kg 0.8 m 3
 Mo  M N  1.255 kg / m 3
M N  1.29  0.286
 1.004 kg

11. The acceleration of free fall on the moon is 1.6m/s2. The acceleration of free
fall on the earth is 10 m/s2. A piece of metal weighs 100 N on the earth.
Which statement about the metal is correct?
A Its mass on the Moon is 16 kg.
B Its mass on the Moon is 100 N.
C Its weight on the moon is 16 N.
D Its weight on the earth is 10 kg. ( C )

12. The mass of a plastic container is increased twice and its volume reduced by
half. The new density of the plastic container is
A reduced by 4 times.
B increased by 4 times.
C increased by 2 times.
D reduced by 2 times. ( B )

13. A marble of mass 9 g and having a density of 3 g/cm3 is carefully lowered into
40 cm3 of water in a measuring cylinder. What is the new reading in the
measuring cylinder?

A 43 cm3
B 67 cm3
C 40.3cm3
D 52 cm3 ( A )

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Science Department

*14. The diagram shows two blocks of the same material. The smaller one has a
mass of M while the larger one has a mass of 2M. The dimensions of the two
blocks are as shown below.

b
c
F
a
Mass = M Mass = 2M
a
2

What is the area of face F?

M
A B bc
abc
( D )
4M
C D 4bc
a

*15. John wants to calculate the density of a type of metal. He measures the
masses and volume of different sized samples of the metal.
Which graph shows their results?

A B

volume mass

0 0
mass volume

C D

volume mass ( A )

0 0
mass volume

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