Question

An unopened 350 mL can of diet Dr. Pepper will float in a lake. However, it's also true that an unopened 350 mL can of regular Dr. Pepper will sink in that same lake! Based on these two facts, which type of soda is the least dense? Explain your answer

Answer 1

Answer:

The less-dense soda is the diet Dr. Pepper soda

Explanation:

density refers to how tightly packed together the molecules of an object is. The tighter the packing, the denser the object. For example, a piece of rock is denser than a piece of foam, because the molecules making up the rock are more tightly packed than the molecules making up the foam hence it is denser. In our example, an object that is denser than water will displace the molecules of water because it is heavier than water, hence it will sink, while an object that is less dense than water will float because the object is not heavy enough to displace the water molecules. Hence, the diet Dr. Pepper soda floats because the molecules are less dense than water and the regular Dr. Pepper soda sinks because the molecules are denser than water.