Instead of measuring the diameter of one glass bead, a student grabbed a handful
ID: 883489 • Letter: I
Question
Instead of measuring the diameter of one glass bead, a student grabbed a handful of glass beads and recorded the mass to be 5.68g. Using water displacement, he determined the volume to be 7.50mL. However, later the student realized that there were air bubbles in the graduated cylinder as well, when he was measuring the water level.
(a). Calculate the density of the glass beads.
(b). If the true density of the glass bead is 0.85g/mL. What is the % error in the student's calculated density?
(c). Did the air bubbles, in the graduated cylinder, cause the density to be too high or too low?
Explanation / Answer
density = mass/V
density = 5.68/7.50
d = 0.7573 g/ml
b % error 0.85- 0.76 = 0.09
0.09/0.85 x 100 = 10.588 %
c) . Air bubbles would make it seem like your sample had a great volume than it really does. A higher volume would result in a lower density.