Question

Could two objects with the same volume have different masses? Which, if either, would contain more matter?

Answer 1

Answer:  Yes, two objects may have the same volume while having different masses. The object with a greater mass will be the one that contains more matter.

Explanation: Mass and volume are two different properties of matter. Mass is defined as the amount of matter that a body has. Volume is defined as the amount of space that a body occupies. Density is the property that relates mass with volume as

$Density=Mass/Volume$

and is defined as the amount of matter that exists in a certain amount of space.

Because mass and volume are independent from each other, we can say that two objects can have different masses and have the same volume.

For example, imagine two identical containers that weigh the same and that are capable of containing a volume of 1 liter each. Then, one of the containers is filled with water, while the other one is filled with mercury. In this case the volume of the water and the volume of the mercury will be the same: 1 liter, however, if we weigh the containers again, we will find that the one that has mercury is heavier than the one that has water. This is due to the density of mercury being higher than the density of water. In other words, 1 liter of mercury provides more mass than the mass provided by 1 liter of water.

Then, according to the definition of mass, the object that contains more matter will be the one that has more mass, in the case of our example, that would be the liter of mercury.