Density Lab
What's up, world? I'm back and doing more experiments. We did, as you can see in the title, a density lab experiment. What is density though? Density of a substance is its mass per unit volume. In this lab, we will make colors appear in the same cup, but not mix together. Don't believe us, you can look at our pictures. You can also try this at home as well. Just make sure you ask your parents for help. This is a bit harder than the last experiments we had done. I almost forgot, you need some materials to do this experiment as well. I'll put those on after this introduction. I'll check up on you when you finished reading. Peace!
Materials
1. Two 250ml beakers, one 500ml beaker
2. Electronic scale
3. Glass stirring rod
4. Pickling salt, water samples (warm & cold), and food coloring (blue and yellow)
5. Something to take pics with
2. Electronic scale
3. Glass stirring rod
4. Pickling salt, water samples (warm & cold), and food coloring (blue and yellow)
5. Something to take pics with
First, we mass each beaker without the water & record the weight of the beaker in grams.
Beaker #1: 116.6 grams Beaker #2: 116.2 grams Next, measure 250ml of cold water into Beaker #1 & 250ml of warm water into Beaker #2. Add 20 grams of salt & 5 drops of blue food coloring into Beaker #1. Stir until all the salt has dissolved. Add 5 drops of yellow food coloring into Beaker #2. Mass each beaker PLUS water and record the new mass. After recording that, calculate the mass, volume and density of the water in each beaker. *Remember Density= Mass/ Volume. Below is a chart of that, the first column is for cold, salty water & the second column is for warm, fresh water. Beaker #1: 319.7 grams Beaker #2: 302.7 grams |
Mass (g)Volume (ml)Density (g/ml) |
116.6 grams250 ml0.4664 |
116.2 grams250 ml0.4648 |
When you are finished with all that, you can start doing the cool stuff. Pour Beaker #2 (the warm water) into the 500ml beaker and place the beaker on the table. Let the water settle until it has stopped moving. Now, take Beaker #1 (the cold water) and SLOWLY pour the water into the 500ml beaker. Stop pouring once in a while and wait for the layers to settle, then you can continue pouring. If you let them settle, look at what is happening in the beaker. If you see one yellow layer on top and a green layer on the bottom, you did it correctly.
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We observed that as we slowly poured the blue water, there were two layers. The top layer is yellow and the bottom layer was green. As we poured more blue water into the beaker, the yellow layer was decreasing while the green layer is increasing. The green layer is in the middle of the yellow & blue layer. The density of the green layer though is not as dense as the yellow layer. It is also lighter than the blue water. What is happening in those beakers next to us is thermal stratification. Thermal stratification is the boundary between the warm and cold waters. It occurs because the water has different densities. Another word for thermal stratification is thermocline. Thermocline is important for the ocean. It's important because it brings nutrients to the surface and brings oxygen to deeper waters.
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I'm back! Did you miss me? I'm just kidding, since you are reading this, it must mean that you are done reading what was up there. Congrats, now you know how to be able to do this at home. I hope you have a fun time trying out this experiment. I also hope you continue to look at my website. Peace!