Question

A student wants to find the density of a solid piece of silicon. The student first places the piece of silicon on a balance and records its mass. After finding the mass the student accidentally drops the piece of silicon and a few small pieces break off and are lost. The student then finds the volume of the silicon by water displacement in a graduated cylinder. Will the calculated density be higher or lower than it should be? Explain.

Answer 1

The calculated density of the broken silicon piece will be higher than the actual density because the mass decreased without significantly changing the volume measured by water displacement.

Step-by-step explanation:

The calculated density of the silicon piece will be higher than it should be after the student accidentally drops it and loses some fragments. This is because the density of an object is the mass per unit volume (density = mass/volume), and during the accident, the mass decreased while the volume measured by water displacement remained virtually the same. Consequently, even though both the mass and volume decrease, the decrease in mass won't affect the displaced water volume measurement, leading to a higher density calculation than the intact silicon piece.