Question

What is the accuracy of your determination of the density for each method? Does your experimental value for density agree with the accepted value? Briefly explain your reasoning.

a) The accuracy is high; the experimental and accepted values match.
b) The accuracy is low; the experimental value is higher than the accepted value.
c) The accuracy is low; the experimental value is lower than the accepted value.
d) The accuracy is indeterminable; no comparison made.

Answer 1

Accuracy in determining density means how closely the experimental value resembles the accepted reference value, using mass and volume measurements. Notably, the number of significant figures in reporting measurements is crucial for precision.

Step-by-step explanation:

The accuracy of determining the density of a material depends on how closely the experimental value matches the accepted value. The accepted value is the density of the material as known from literature or standards, while the experimental value is the density obtained from laboratory measurements by calculating mass divided by volume. When the accuracy of the measurement decreases, the margin of error increases, meaning the experimental value could be significantly higher or lower than the accepted value, or it may not be possible to determine accuracy without a comparison.

When conducting an experiment to determine the density of a material:

• (a) We would calculate the density using the mass and volume measurements from the experiment.
• (b) To identify the material, we could compare the experimental density to known densities of various materials, which could provide clues to the material's identity.

Note the importance of significant figures in reporting measurements: for instance, if mass is given with four significant figures and volume with three, the density calculated should be rounded to match the least number of significant figures, which is three in this case.