Question

jacob is given a beaker full of an unknown liquid and asked to calculate the density of the substance. He places the beaker of liquid on a digital scale. The digital scale displays that the mass of the liquid and the beaker combined is 52.4 grams.

Then, Jacob pours the liquid into a graduated cylinder to measure the volume of the liquid. He finds that the liquid has a volume of 15.2 mL.

Finally, Jacob calculates the density of the liquid by using the following equation

52.4 g ÷ 15.2 mL = 3.4 g/mL
He reports the density of the liquid to be 3.4 g/mL, but his teacher tells him that the actual density of the liquid is 1.1 g/mL. What was the source of Jacob's calculation error? i dont need the answer i just need someone to help explain it better

Jacob did not convert the volume of the liquid into the correct units before he used it in the density equation.

Jacob divided the mass of the liquid by the volume of the liquid instead of multiplying it to find the density of the liquid.

Jacob did not subtract the mass of the beaker from the combined mass before he used it in the density equation.

Jacob used a graduated cylinder instead of a triple beam balance to calculate the volume of the liquid.

Answer 1

Well, he did make an error earlier on in the experiment where he did not measure the true mass of the water but instead he measure the mass both of the water and the beaker. He should has measure the mass of the beaker first.