Question

You have a heavy piece of wood that measures 2 cm x 10 cm x 5 cm.You find its mass is 89 g. Will this piece of wood float?

Answer 1

Yes.

Explanation:

The wood will float if it has less density than the water. Density is defined by mass per volume, therefore we just need to find the volume of the wood since we are given the mass.

`2*10*5="100 cm"^3"`

So:

the density of the wood is `(89"g")/(100"cm"^3)="0.89 g/cm"^3"`

Now we need to know the density of water. This changes as a function of temperature, but it is approximately `"1 g/cm"^3"`.

If we take the ratio of the densities we get:

Wood: `.89/1`
Water: `1/1`

Wood is less dense therefore it will float