Density is the amount of mass inside of a volume.

The more mass (atoms) inside a space, the denser the object is.

What is density?

How can we find density?

To find density, we ALWAYS need to know two things:
- Mass (how many atoms are inside an object)
- Volume (how much space an object takes up)

Density calculation example

You find a rock in the yard that has a mass of 250 g and a volume of 50 mL. What is the density of the rock?

​Start with
the formula

Plug in mass and volume

Do the math & remember units!

​Finding Mass

Mass is easy to find! Place the object on a scale. The units will be in some form of grams (g).

gram (g)
kilogram (kg)
milligram (mg)
...and so on

Finding Volume

Volume is a little trickier. Since most objects are weirdly shaped, we use water to find the volume.

liter (L)
kiloliter (kL)
milliliter (mL)
...and so on

​Remember how density works!

Anything that is MORE dense will sink under LESS dense things.
(and the other way around!)

Example:
If rock = 3.4 g/mL and water is 1 g/mL, the rock will SINK in water
If foam = 0.9 g/mL and corn syrup is 1.3 g/mL, the foam will FLOAT.