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Density Formal Report

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Density Formal Lab Report
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Purpose/Objective:
Determine density of a product for a plastic manufacturing facility. Provide quality control by making sure the physical properties are within design specifications. Density is defined as the ratio of an object’s mass to its volume, measured by dividing mass by volume (density = mass/volume). This was accomplished using two different experimental methods, displacement and floatation. The theory is that both methods should have the same density results; the goal is to determine which method is “best”.

1st Method: Displacement
This method was first known as Archimedes ' principle. The principle states that a body immersed in a fluid is …show more content…

Because the displacement method took less time the group was able to complete twice the amount of experiments, having more experiments to back up the data.
Other factors why the displacement method was chosen:
• Materials cost less per experiment
• Materials are easier to attain (water and product vs. glycerin, ethanol and product for floatation method)
• Less chance for error with more time to do additional experiments (16 experiments vs. 8 experiments with the floatation method – refer to table #1 & #2)
• Density outcome for product was essentially the same (group average of 1.04% vs. 1.02% for floatation – refer to Table #1 & Table #2)
There are some potential errors in both methods. For the displacement method, water could splash out of the graduated cylinder causing the density to be inaccurate and lower than the actual density. For the floatation method, the object could float long enough to get the measurement and report findings, but there could be a pocket of glycerin or ethanol that was not dispersed therefore causing the findings to be inaccurate, density could therefore be too high or too low.
If the group were to do the experiment over again what would be done differently is to use the same quantity of product each experiment. This would help explain the findings to the manufacturing company in a clearer, concise way.

Conclusion:
The displacement method was chosen as the best by our

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