Question

During Mr. Nye's science class, students were expected to identify various substances using physical properties they could easily measure. Mr. Nye gave each of the five groups a green, metal cube. The students had to identify what metal the cube was made of. The length of each side was 3.0 cm and the mass was 270 grams.

Answer 1

Answer:Density

Explanation: The students should compute the density of the cube. Density is a physical property that can be used to identify most pure substances. The students know the length of a side so they can compute the volume. They also know the mass. Using the density formula, density =

mass

volume

, they can compute the density and identify the metal.

Answer 2

Given the length of each side of a cube and its mass, the density can be obtained which can then help identify the type of material it's made of. This is because density is a unique and intrinsic property of materials. For this problem, the density is determined to be 10g/cm^3. Looking at a table of densities, the metal is most likely actinium, which has an exact density of 10 g/cm^3.