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Topic: Impossible Problem!?  (Read 2928 times)

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Offline healthfreak912

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Impossible Problem!?
« on: August 27, 2007, 11:28:39 PM »
Ok so here is the problem/ scenario to solve? Ans: 1.335E1 g/ml
Following part 1 of the lab you record the following observations:

1. Mass of dry, empty flask and stopper = 25.59 g.
2. Mass of dry flask, stopper, and unknown metal = 53.11 g.
3. Mass of flask, stopper, unknown metal and water = 80.30 g.
4. Mass of flask, stopper, and water = 54.86 g.

You determine that the density of the water is 1.009. What is the density of the unknown metal in g/ml?

Offline Yggdrasil

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Re: Impossible Problem!?
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2007, 12:02:14 AM »
Since density is mass per unit volume, you should probably start by trying to figure out the mass of the metal and then the volume of the metal.  Hint: to do this you need to figure out the volume of the flask.  This problem is possible to solve.

Offline lavoisier

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Re: Impossible Problem!?
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2007, 01:17:27 PM »
I guess a couple of assumptions are being made here, namely 1) that the flask is completely filled in 3 and 4, and 2) that the weight of air is neglected, or that we're working in vacuo.

(I've always hated these problems, by the way. Probably good for stimulating your logical thinking, but often inaccurate, like in this case.)

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