Question

Consider butter (density= 0.860 g/mL) and sand (density= 2.28 g/mL). If 1.00 mL of butter were mixed with 1.00 mL of sand and mixed as thoroughly as possible what would be the density of the resulting mixture?

Answer 1

The density of the mixture will be 1.57 g/cm³.

Step 1. Calculate the mass of the butter.

$\text{Mass} = \text{1.00 cm}^{3 } \times \frac{\text{0.680 g} }{\text{1 cm}^{3 }} = \text{0.860 g}$

Step 2. Calculate the mass of the sand.

$\text{Mass} = \text{1.00 cm}^{3 } \times \frac{\text{2.28 g} }{\text{1 cm}^{3 }} = \text{2.28 g}$

Step 3. Calculate the density of the mixture.

Total mass = 0.860 g + 2.28 g = 3.14 g.

Total volume = 1 cm³ + 1 cm³ = 2 cm³

$\text{Density} = \frac{\text{mass}}{\text{volume}} = \frac{\text{3.14 g} }{\text{2 cm}^{3 }} = \textbf{1.57 g/cm}{^{3}$