Density

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This article is about mass density. For other uses, see Density (disambiguation).
The mass density or density of a material is its mass per unit volume. The symbol
most often used for density is ρ (the lower case Greek letter rho). Mathematically,
density is defined as mass divided by volume:

where ρ is the density, m is the mass, and V is the volume. In some cases (for
instance, in the United States oil and gas industry), density is also defined as
its weight per unitvolume,[1] although this quantity is more properly
called specific weight.
Different materials usually have different densities, and density may be relevant
to buoyancy, purity and packaging. Osmium and iridium are the densest
known elements atstandard conditions for temperature and pressure but certain
chemical compounds may be denser.
Less dense fluids float on more dense fluids if they do not mix. This concept
can be extended, with some care, to less dense solids floating on more dense
fluids. If the average density (including any air below the waterline) of an
object is less than water it will float in water and if it is more than water it will
sink in water.
Density is sometimes expressed by the dimensionless quantity "specific
gravity" or "relative density", i.e. the ratio of the density of the material to that
of a standard material, usually water. Thus a specific gravity less than one
means that the substance floats in water.
The density of a material varies with temperature and pressure. This variation is
typically small for solids and liquids but much greater for gases. Increasing the
pressure on an object decreases the volume of the object and thus increases its
density. Increasing the temperature of a substance (with a few exceptions)
decreases its density by increasing its volume. In most materials, heating the
bottom of a fluid results in convection of the heat from the bottom to the top,
due to the decrease in the density of the heated fluid. This causes it to rise
relative to more dense unheated material.
The reciprocal of the density of a substance is occasionally called its specific
volume, a term sometimes used in thermodynamics. Density is an intensive
property in that increasing the amount of a substance does not increase its
density; rather it increases its mass.
Contents
[hide]

1 History
2 Measurement of density
3 Changes of density
4 Density of solutions
5 Densities
o 5.1 Water
o 5.2 Air
o 5.3 Various materials
o 5.4 Others
6 Other common units
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
[edit]History
In a well-known but probably apocryphal tale, Archimedes was given the task
of determining whether King Hiero's goldsmith was embezzling gold during the
manufacture of a goldenwreath dedicated to the gods and replacing it with
another, cheaper alloy.[2] Archimedes knew that the irregularly shaped wreath
could be crushed into a cube whose volume could be calculated easily and
compared with the mass; but the king did not approve of this. Baffled,
Archimedes is said to have taken an immersion bath and observed from the rise
of the water upon entering that he could calculate the volume of the gold wreath
through the displacement of the water. Upon this discovery, he leapt from his
bath and ran naked through the streets shouting, "Eureka! Eureka!" (Εύρηκα!
Greek "I have found it"). As a result, the term "eureka" entered common
parlance and is used today to indicate a moment of enlightenment.
The story first appeared in written form in Vitruvius' books of architecture, two
centuries after it supposedly took place.[3] Some scholars have doubted the
accuracy of this tale, saying among other things that the method would have
required precise measurements that would have been difficult to make at the
time.[4][5]
From the equation for density (ρ = m / V), mass density has units of mass
divided by volume. As there are many units of mass and volume covering many
different magnitudes there are a large number of units for mass density in use.
The SI unit of kilogram per cubic metre (kg/m3) and the cgs unit
of gram per cubic centimetre (g/cm3) are probably the most commonly used
units for density. (The cubic centimeter can be alternately called a millilitre or
a cc.) 1,000 kg/m3 equals one g/cm3. In industry, other larger or smaller units of
mass and or volume are often more practical and US customary units may be
used. See below for a list of some of the most common units of density.
[edit]Measurement of density
The density at all points of a homogeneous object equals its total mass divided
by its total volume. The mass is normally measured with a scale or balance; the
volume may be measured directly (from the geometry of the object) or by the
displacement of a fluid. To determine the density of a liquid or a gas,
a hydrometer or dasymeter may be used, respectively. Similarly, hydrostatic
weighing uses the displacement of water due to a submerged object to
determine the density of the object.
If the body is not homogeneous, then its density varies between different
regions of the object. In that case the density around any given location is
determined by calculating the density of a small volume around that location. In
the limit of an infinitesimal volume the density of an inhomogeneous object at a
point becomes: ρ(r) = dm/dV, where dV is an elementary volume at position r.
The mass of the body then can be expressed as

The density of granular material can be ambiguous, depending on exactly

how its volume is defined, and this may cause confusion in measurement. A
common example is sand: if it is gently poured into a container, the density
will be low; if the same sand is then compacted, it will occupy less volume
and consequently exhibit a greater density. This is because sand, like all
powders and granular solids, contains a lot of air space in between
individual grains. The density of the material including the air spaces is
the bulk density, which differs significantly from the density of an
individual grain of sand with no air included.
[edit]Changes of density
Main articles: Compressibility and Thermal expansivity
In general, density can be changed by changing either the pressure or
the temperature. Increasing the pressure always increases the density of a
material. Increasing the temperature generally decreases the density, but
there are notable exceptions to this generalization. For example, the density
of water increases between its melting point at 0 °C and 4 °C; similar
behavior is observed in silicon at low temperatures.
The effect of pressure and temperature on the densities of liquids and solids
is small. The compressibility for a typical liquid or solid is 10−6 bar−1 (1 bar
= 0.1 MPa) and a typicalthermal expansivity is 10−5 K−1. This roughly
translates into needing around ten thousand times atmospheric pressure to
reduce the volume of a substance by one percent. (Although the pressures
needed may be around a thousand times smaller for sandy soil and some
clays.) A one percent expansion of volume typically requires a temperature
increase on the order of thousands of degrees Celsius.
In contrast, the density of gases is strongly affected by pressure. The density
of an ideal gas is

Where M is the molar mass, P is the pressure, R is the universal gas

constant, and T is the absolute temperature. This means that the density
of an ideal gas can be doubled by doubling the pressure, or by halving
the absolute temperature.
In the case of volumic thermal expansion at constant pressure and small
intervals of temperature the temperature dependence of density is :
where is the density at a reference temperature, is the thermal
expansion coefficient of the material at temperatures close to .
[edit]Density of solutions
The density of a solution is the sum of mass (massic)
concentrations of the components of that solution.
Mass (massic) concentration of each given component ρi in a solution
sums to density of the solution.

Expressed as a function of the densities of pure components of the

mixture and their volume participation, it reads:

provided that there is no interaction between the components.

[edit]Densities
[edit]Water
See also: Water density
Density of water at 1 atm pressure:

Temp (°C) Density (kg/m3)

100 958.4

80 971.8

60 983.2

40 992.2
30 995.6502

25 997.0479

22 997.7735

20 998.2071

15 999.1026

10 999.7026

4 999.9720

0 999.8395

−10 998.117

−20 993.547

−30 983.854

The values below 0 °C refer to supercooled water.

[edit]Air
Main article: Density of air
 Density vs. temperature

Density of air at 1 atm pressure:

T (°C) ρ (kg/m3)

−25 1.423

−20 1.395

−15 1.368

−10 1.342

−5 1.316

0 1.293
 5 1.269

10 1.247

15 1.225

20 1.204

25 1.184

30 1.164

35 1.146

[edit]Various materials
Further information: Orders of magnitude (density)
Unless otherwise noted, all densities given are at standard
conditions for temperature and pressure, that is,
273.15 K (0.00 °C) and 100 kPa (0.987 atm).

ρ (kg/
Material Notes
m3)

Air 1.2 At sea level

Aerographite 0.2 *[6][7]

 Metallic
0.9 *
microlattice

Aerogel 1.0 *

Styrofoam 75 Approx.[8]

liquid hydrogen 70 At ~ -255°C

Cork 240 Approx.[8]

Lithium 535

Wood 700 Seasoned, typical[9][10]

[11]
Potassium 860

Sodium 970

Ice 916.7 At temperature < 0°C

Water (fresh) 1,000

Water (salt) 1,030

Approx.;
Plastics 1,175 for polypropylene and PETE/PV
C
Tetrachloroethen
1,622
e

Magnesium 1,740

Beryllium 1,850

[12]
Glycerol 1,261

Silicon 2,330

Aluminium 2,700

Diiodomethane 3,325 liquid at room temperature

Diamond 3,500

Titanium 4,540

Selenium 4,800

Vanadium 6,100

Antimony 6,690

Zinc 7,000
Chromium 7,200

Manganese 7,325 Approx.

Tin 7,310

Iron 7,870

Niobium 8,570

Cadmium 8,650

Cobalt 8,900

Nickel 8,900

Copper 8,940

Bismuth 9,750

Molybdenum 10,220

Silver 10,500

Lead 11,340

Thorium 11,700
 Rhodium 12,410

Mercury 13,546

Tantalum 16,600

Uranium 18,800

Tungsten 19,300

Gold 19,320

Plutonium 19,840

Platinum 21,450

Iridium 22,420

Osmium 22,570

*Air excluded when calculating density

[edit]Others

Entity ρ (kg/m3) Notes

Interstellar Assuming 90% H, 10% He;

1×10−19
medium variable T
 The Earth 5,515 Mean density.[13]

The Inner
Core of the 13,000 Approx., as listed in Earth.[14]
Earth

The core of 33,000–

Approx.[15]
the Sun 160,000

White
2.1×109 Approx.[16]
dwarf star

Neutron star 1×1018

Does not depend strongly on size

Atomic nuclei 2.3×1017
of nucleus[17]

Mean density inside

the Schwarzschild radius of an
Black hole 2×1030
Earth-mass black
hole (theoretical).

[edit]Other common units

The SI unit for density is:

 kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m3)

Litres and metric tons are not part of the SI, but are acceptable
for use with it, leading to the following units:

 kilograms per liter (kg/L)

 grams per milliliter (g/mL)
 metric tons per cubic meter (t/m3)
Densities using the following metric units all have exactly the
same numerical value, one thousandth of the value in (kg/m3).
Liquid water has a density of about 1 kg/dm3, making any of
these SI units numerically convenient to use as
most solids and liquids have densities between 0.1 and
20 kg/dm3.

 kilograms per cubic decimetre (kg/dm3)

 grams per cubic centimetre (g/cc, gm/cc or g/cm3)
3 3
 1 gram/cm = 1000 kg/m
 megagrams (metric tons) per cubic metre (Mg/m3)
In US customary units density can be stated in:

 Avoirdupois ounces per cubic inch (oz/cu in)

 Avoirdupois pounds per cubic inch (lb/cu in)
 pounds per cubic foot (lb/cu ft)
 pounds per cubic yard (lb/cu yd)
 pounds per US liquid gallon (lb/gal)
 pounds per US bushel (lb/bu)
 slugs per cubic foot
Imperial units differing from the above (as the Imperial gallon
and bushel differ from the US units) in practice are rarely
used, though found in older documents. The density
ofprecious metals could conceivably be based on Troy ounces
and pounds, a possible cause of confusion.