LAB #6 – Measurement: Volume

Introduction

Volume is the amount of space occupied by matter - solid, liquid, or gas.

Volume is measured in units: cm³ for a solid, mL for a liquid. 

Problem

-         A: How can we find the volume of a rectangular block? 

-         B: How can we find the volume of an irregularly

           shaped object?

Hypothesis:

-

Materials

-         Various sized blocks, irregular shaped objects, ruler, graduated cylinder

Procedure A

 1) Use a metric ruler to measure the dimensions of your rectangular objects; measure to the nearest tenth (0.1) cm.
 2) Calculate the volume in cm³ of your rectangular object by multiplying the length (cm) times the width (cm) times the height (cm). V = L x W x H
 3) Record your measurements in the data table.

  

Results

Data Table: Volume of rectangular objects
        

Object	length (cm)	width (cm)	height (cm)	Volume (cm3)
A
B
C
D

V = L x W x H

cm³ = (cm)(cm)(cm)

 Procedure B

Use a graduated cylinder to measure the volume of an irregular shaped solid. 
1. Fill the graduated cylinder to 50 mL and record this into your notebook.  This is your initial volume.
2. Carefully drop the object in on an angle.  The object will displace water (push water up to make way for the object) which will rise to make a new volume.
3. Subtract your initial volume from the new water level.
 New Volume --------------à                _____mL
 Initial Volume ------------à                 _____mL
Volume of irregularly shaped object: _____mL

Now, check to see if you’ve measured correctly using the Volume of a sphere equation:  

Volume of sphere using equation:_____cm³

Analysis

1) What is the maximum volume you can measure with this graduated cylinder?

2) What is the smallest volume you can measure with this graduated cylinder?

3)  Determine the value of the minor grids on the cylinder.  i.e. how many mL does each line equal?

4) If you had a large enough sized graduated cylinder, could you use it to measure the volume of your blocks?  What problems may you encounter when trying this?  

5) Define "displacement" in your own words.

6) What are the volumes of the following objects? (Don't for get units!)

a. silver cylinder = ______

b. ring = ______

c. fish = ______

d. rock = ______

 Conclusion

What was your problem?

Restate your hypothesis.  Was it right? wrong?  why or why not?

What did you learn in this lab?

What did you like about this lab?

What were some challenges you had to deal with?

What could you do next with this problem?  What other tests could you perform?

Write down any other additional thoughts, observations, inferences, etc.

Complete the following worksheet in your lab workbooks:

http://www.jabe.com/docs/Graduated%20Cylinder%20Worksheet.pdf