Density Samples - Physics Demonstrations - Density Samples | Physics Undergraduate Labs

Keep bottles sealed during the demo — some materials (e.g., lead shot) should not be handled directly.

Purpose

Identical 473 mL bottles filled with different materials are weighed to show that equal volumes can have very different masses. Students see directly that density is an intrinsic property of the material, not determined by size.

Four identical 473 mL translucent plastic bottles filled with different materials — one with pennies, one with white powder — arranged around an Ohaus Scout Pro 4000g digital scale

Figure 1: Four identical 473 mL bottles filled with different materials and an Ohaus Scout Pro scale (4 kg capacity) for weighing each bottle.

Safety Warnings

Warning: Keep Bottles Sealed

Purpose