The property that matter, whether solid, liquid, or gas, has to compress in a specific space, the amount of mass per unit volume, is known as density. Understanding how various materials interact when combined is an everyday use of density. When Archimedes was tasked with figuring out whether King Hiero’s goldsmith was stealing gold while creating a golden wreath devoted to the gods and substituting it with another, less expensive alloy, he first discovered it.
To determine it experimentally, the object’s mass and volume must be determined, and both magnitudes must be divided (Ross , 2017). Because wood has a lower density than metal, it floats in water, while an anchor sinks because metal has a higher density. In this experiment, density plays a crucial role in separating the three types of unknown metals based on their reactions to distilled water. As silver, rhodium, and platinum have densities of 10.5, 12.4, and 21.45 grams per cubic centimeter, respectively, it is expected that the densities discovered in this experiment will match those known densities. A virtual lab will be run for that objective.
Methods and materials
The first unknown metal was measured for mass using a weigh boat and weighed on a scale. The starting volume of the distilled water was then determined by measuring it between 2 and 7 milliliters in a graduated cylinder with a 10-milliliter capacity. The graduated cylinder was filled with the amount of metal powder, and the outcome was measured as the final volume. The average density for the first unidentified metal was determined after three tests. The last two metals undergo the same procedure.
Results
Three trials were conducted to determine the weight of the metal (m1) poured into the weight boat. The volume of water (Vi) ran into the 10mL graduated cylinder at the beginning of the experiment. The importance of water (Vi) poured into the graduated cylinder after the metal poured into the water (Vf). The density of the metal was determined using these measurements and the density formula (m1/(Vf-Vi)). The three trials were completed, and the densities were totaled and divided by the total number of attempts to determine the average density. Here are the numbers:
Table 1: Results of the first unknown metal.
Table 2: Results of the second unknown metal.
Table 3: Results of the third unknown metal.
The results of the experiments indicate that the first unknown metal is silver, the second unknown metal is rhodium, and the third unknown metal is platinum. The average densities of the strange metals were 10.6, 12.5, and 21.2 grams per cubic centimeter, respectively (Unknown Metal 1 Data, Unknown Metal 2 Data, and Unknown Metal 3 Data). It can be observed that these values are closely connected to the densities of silver (10.5), rhodium (12.4), and platinum (21.45). The thicknesses of unknown metals one through three are closely similar to those of unknown metal one, rhodium, and platinum, respectively.
Discussion
This research has led to conclusion that the density of unknown metals can be utilized to compare them to known metals and rename them by calculating their mass and volume. This experiment demonstrates that a material’s thickness can be used to determine its identity. Initially, silver had the lowest density (10.5 g/cm3), followed by rhodium (12.4 g/cm3) and platinum (21.45 g/cm3). In light of this, their average density can help to determine the unknown metals. To rename them, it was discovered that unknown metal number one is silver, unknown metal number two is rhodium, and unknown metal number three is platinum. The primary goal of this experiment was achieved, which was to identify the unidentified metals. Future tests would yield results that are more accurate if fixed volume of distilled water in the 10 mL cylinder will be used, but overall, this experiment met its goal.
Reference
Ross , R. (2017). Eureka! The Archimedes Principle. Live Science. Web.