Measuring Density Lab Report

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this experiment was to measure the density of an unknown metal object and use the measured density to insinuate a probable identity for the metal.

PROCEDURE In part one of this experiment, an unknown metal object, a graduated cylinder, water, and a mass balance was first collected. The object was dried with a paper towel to avoid any water droplets and the mass balance was checked to read 0.0 g when nothing was on it. The first measurement that was retrieved as the mass of the metal object was 24.15 g. This was repeated for a second measurement of 23.85 g, and a final measurement of 23.82 g. All three mass measurements were recorded.
Moving forward, to find the volume of the metal object, the graduated cylinder

The calculated average density from the three trials is computed by adding all three density values (7.8, 8.0, and 8.2 g/mL) and dividing by three. The average density value of the metal object was 8.0 g/mL.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Based on the unknown metal objects density of 8.0 g/mL, it is inferred that identity of the unknown metal would respectfully be tin. There is an error of 0.2 g/mL among the calculated density and identified density of tin. This error was determined using the equation for standard deviation. This error can be associated to sources from the experiment. When the volume of each of the three samples was being measured, the water from the graduated cylinder was poured into a glass beaker to remove the metal object. This error resulted in a minor loss of water in between measuring each sample, due to water droplets being left on the metal object and in the beaker. The loss of water was not calculated when measuring the initial volume in the graduated cylinder. Finally, two significant figures were used to report the density and the volume is the measurement that limits the number of significant figures since it was measured to the nearest 0.1