Question

Why would water displacement be the preferred method for determining volume, even if the object were regularly shaped (cube, cylinder, etc.)?

Answer 1

water has volume all its own so if the water is in a 9 by 13 by 12 pan and you put a peice of 2 by 2 solid peice of steel in it you will se it moves the water so if you do the mat correctly you will find the volume of the object.

Answer 2

Because of the fluency of the water.

Step-by-step explanation:

Water is a standard way to determine volume because it can reach every spot in the shaped, no matter how complicated it is, it's fluency properties makes it perfect for that.

Also, the water doesn't have solid particles inside, so the volume can't change. This mean that if you use another liquid that could have solid particles, they can stuck in the walls of the shaped, so, this changed the volume of the liquid and, therefore, your measurement.