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Mass density (or Density)

Density measures the heaviness of an object or how closely packed the
substance is. Density is related to both the type of material that an object is
made of and how closely packed the material is.
Definition. The mass density or density of a material is its mass per unit
volume. Matematically it is defined as mass divided by volume:

d=

m
V

where m is the mass of the material and V is the volume.

Density is a derived quantity obtained from mass and volume. The SI units
for density are kg/m3, even if we also use the unit g/cm3.
Generally, density describes how tightly packed something is. An object with
a lot of material in a small space is more dense than an object that has lots of
air space included.
Density is a physical property constant at a given temperature and density
can help to identify a substance.
Substance

Relative density (g/cm3)

Alcohol

0.82

Mercury

13.95

Paraffin

0.80

Petrol

0.72

Water

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(4oC)

1.00

Sea water

1.02

Aluminum

2.72

Cast iron

7.20

Lead

11.35

Nickel

8.73

Nylon

1.12

PVC

1.36

Rubber

0.96

Steel

7.82

Zinc

7.12

Acetylene

0.0017

Dry air

0.0013

Example 1 - Use the density to identify the material

An unknown liquid substance has a mass of 18.5 g and occupies a volume of
23.4 ml (milliliter). Identify the substance.

m = 18, 5g = 18, 5 10

kg

V = 23, 4mL = 23, 4 10 3 L = 23, 4 10

23, 4 10 6 m3 = 2, 34 10 5 m3

dm3 = 23, 4 10

10

m3 =

The density can be calculated as:

m
18, 5 10
d=
=
V
2, 34 10

3
6

= 790

kg
m3

If we look up densities of some common substances, we can find that ethyl

alcohol, or ethanol, has a density of 790 kg/m3. The liquid may be ethyl
alcohol.
Example 2 - Use density to calculate the mass of a volume
The density of titanium is 4507 kg/m3. Calculate the mass of 0.17 m3 titanium.

m = d V = 0, 17(m3 ) 4507(kg/m3 ) = 766, 2kg

Proportionality between mass and volume of a substance
Starting from the definition of density we deduce that the mass and volume
are directly proportional, because the their ratio is constant.
These plots show how the masses of
three liquids vary with their volumes.
Notice that:
the plots all have the same origin of
(0;0): if the mass is zero, so is the
volume;
the plots are all straight lines,
which signify direct proportionality.

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The only difference between these plots is their slopes. Denoting mass
and volume by m and V rispectively, we can write the equation of each line
as:

m=dV
where the slope d is the proportionality constant that relates mass to volume.
This quantity d is known as the density. As we said, density can be expressed
in any combination of mass and volume units; the most commonly used are
grams per mL (g/mL; g/cm3) ora kilograms per litre (kg/L).
Exercises
a) A block of aluminum occupies a volume of 15.0 mL and weighs 40.5 g.
What is its density?
b) What is the weight of the ethyl alcohol that exactly fills a 200.0 mL
container? The density of ethyl alcohol is 0.789 g/mL.
c) A rectangular block of copper metal weighs 1896 g. The dimensions of the
block are 8.4 cm by 5.5 cm by 4.6 cm. From this data, what is the density of
copper?
d) Calculate the density of sulfuric acid if 35.4 mL of the acid weighs 65.14 g.
e) Find the mass of 250.0 mL of benzene. The density of benzene is 0.8765
g/mL.
f) A block of lead has dimensions of 4.50 cm by 5.20 cm by 6.00 cm. The
block weighs 1587 g. From this information, calculate the density of lead.
g) What volume of silver metal will weigh exactly 2500.0 g. The density of
silver is 10.5 g/cm3.

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