New York City College of Technology Department of Construction Management and Civil Engineering Technology CMCE 2351 Fluid

Mechanics Laboratory Laboratory Report 1 Density

Due: July 7, 2011 Submitted by: Gerarda M. Shields Group Members: Anthony Cioffi Melanie Villatoro Sigurd Stegmaeir

Purpose The purpose of this laboratory is to verify the density of water using three different methods. Methodology Density is the ratio of mass per unit volume (Mott, 2006). Mathematically, this can be written as: Where,

Three separate methods will be utilized to measure mass and associated volumes: a measuring beaker, a Eureka can, and a density bottle. The mass of the water is determined in the same manner for all three methods. The mass of the water is weighed on a triple beam balance. The measurement of volume varies for each method. In the beaker method, the volume of the water is measured using the calibrations on the beaker in milliliters (mL). In the Eureka can method, the can is filled until overflowing. Once the overflow has stopped, an object of known volume is gently dropped into the Eureka can (Fig. 1). Based on the principle discovered by Archimedes of Syracuse, the volume of water displaced by the submerged object is equal to the volume of water displaced out of the Eureka can (Weisstein, 2007). The mass of the displaced water is then measured. The density bottle is a glass bottle calibrated to a specific volume, such as 50 mL. The bottle is filled until overflowing, and a cap is placed on the bottle. The cap removes any excess water above 50 mL (TecQuipment, 2010).

(a)

(b)

Figure 1: a) Typical Eureka cans (Andersen Scientific Ltd.) and b) Typical density bottle

In this laboratory, the density of room temperature water (at approximately 25C) will be verified. For a successful laboratory experiment, the values should be determined with no more than a 2% error. Typical values of density, in metric units, are shown below for water at various temperatures.
Table 1: Density of water at various temperatures (Mott, 2006)

Results The results for the three methods are shown below. The average temperature of the water was 23C. The standard density of water at this temperature is 998 kg/m3.
Table 2: Density values for the three methods

Beaker Method 1000 kg/m3

Eureka Can Method 963 kg/m3

Density Bottle 1005 kg/m3

Sample Calculations Sample calculations for each of the methods performed are shown below. Method A: Beaker a) Mass of beaker = 213.6 g b) Volume of fluid in beaker = 600 mL c) Mass of beaker + fluid = 813.3 g d) Mass of water = (Mass of beaker + fluid) (Mass of beaker) = 599.7 g e) Density of fluid

Method B: Eureka Can a) Volume of prismatic solid (shape varies) = 51.5 cm3 = mL b) Mass of beaker = 15.6 g c) Mass of beaker + fluid = 66.6 g d) Mass of water = (Mass of beaker + fluid) (Mass of beaker) = 15.1 g e) Density of fluid

Method C: Density Bottle a) b) c) d) e) Mass of density bottle = 31.4 g Volume of fluid in beaker = 50 mL Mass of beaker + fluid = 81.7 g Mass of water = (Mass of beaker + fluid) (Mass of beaker) = 50.3 g Density of fluid

Conclusion The purpose was successfully accomplished. The standard density of water at 23C is 998 kg/m3. Again, the densities of water were found to be: 1000 kg/m3 for the beaker, 963 kg/m3 for the Eureka can and 1005 kg/m3 for the density bottle. The percent error for the beaker and density bottle methods is 0.02% and 0.7%, respectively. These errors are well below the standard 2% error and are acceptable. However, the Eureka can method had an error of 3.8% which is unexpectedly high. This error could be due to poor measurement of the volume of the displaced water or dimensions of the prismatic object used to displace the water in the Eureka can. This value should be disregarded because it is above the accepted 2% error. References Mott, R. (2006). Applied fluid mechanics, 6th Ed., Pearson Education, Inc., New Jersey, pp14 and 589. TecQuipment Ltd. (2010). H314 hydrostatics and properties of fluids, TecQuipment, New York, p11. Weisstein, E., (2007). Archimedes of Syracuse. Eric Weissteins world of biography, <http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Archimedes.html> (July 5, 2011).