Question

Okay so I’m trying to understand something for my CER. I did a lab on objects that have an equal mass but volume and density vary. Now I need to defend why the volume increased and the density decreased. I’m having trouble wrapping my head around to 1. Defend that and 2. If mass is extrinsic or intrinsic and why?

Answer 1

You know that Density = Mass/Volume, right? In symbols,

D = m/V.

If mass (m) is constant, let’s replace m with the symbol k to represent a constant. Then,

D = k/V or D ∝ 1/V

Density and Volume are inversely proportional. When one goes up, the other goes down and vice versa.

Mass is an extrinsic property because it depends on how much of the material you have. The more material you have, the greater its mass will be.