A general chemistry student found a chunk of metal in the basement of a friend's house. To
figure out what it was, he used the
First he measured the mass of the metal
ideas just developed in class about density.
to be 124.4 grams. Then he
dropped the metal into a measuring cup and found that it displaced 17.0 mL of water.
Calcutate the
density of the metal.
Density =
g /mL
Use the table below to decide the identity of the metal. This metal is most likely
Densities of Some Common Substances
Substance Density (g/mL)
Water
1.00
Aluminum
2.72
Chromium
7.25
Nickel
8.91
Copper
8.94
Silver
10.50
Lead
11.34
Mercury
13.60
Gold
19.28
Tungsten
19.38
Platinum
21.46