Question

Mr. Fuller assigned his science class a lab comparing the masses of objects to the nearest gram using a balance. The mass of a paper clip is about 1 gram. How many paper clips will it take to balance the scale, if it is determined that a 1 centimeter cube of aluminum has the mass of 2.7 grams?

Answer 1

The scale would need 10 aluminum cubes on one side. Figure out how many paper clips would be needed on the other side to balance this. You have to use more than one aluminum cube because you need to have enough cubes so that you get a whole number mass. 10 cubes gives you a total mass of 27 g for the aluminum.