what will I need to check the density of an object and what are the procedures

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Request for Question Clarification by secret901-ga on 11 Aug 2002 20:12 PDT

Does this object have uniform density?  That is, does it have the same
density throughout?

Density is the measurement of how much stuff has been packed in a
certain amount of space.  Thus, in order to determine the density of
an object, you would need to first find its mass and its volume.  If
you are performing a physics experiment, it is best to use SI units
(m, kg, L)
Materials:
-Weight-measuring device (balance, scale, etc.)
-You also need a device to measure the volume of the object.  If the
shape of the object is regular (cube, sphere, rectangular prism, etc.)
then it is easy to measure the volume.  If it is not regular, you can
fill a water container to its brim, then place the object in the water
(make sure the object is completely submerged).  Some water will spill
out.  The amount of water that has spilt is the volume.  Once you
determined the volume of the object, you can determine its density by
taking the mass and divide it by the volume.

For example:
You have a rock, and you want to find its density.
You weigh it, and it weighs 0.5 kg.
Placing it in a 1.0 L water container full of water and taking it out
leaves 0.7 L.  The volume of the rock is thus (1.0 L - 0.7 L = 0.3 L).
Now, to find its density in kg/L, you divide the mass by the volume:
0.5 kg/0.3 L = 1.7 kg/L.
Now, perhaps 1.7 kg/L is not helpful to you and you decide to change
it into kg/cubic meters.
The conversion would be like this:
1.7 kg/L * 0.001 L/cubic meter = 1.7 x 10^(-3) kg/cubic meter.

Note that water's density is 1 gm/cc or 1 kg/L, so you can estimate an
object's density by looking at whether it floats or sink in water (if
it floats, its density is smaller; if it sinks, its density is
larger).

Thank you for using Google Answers, if you need clarification, please
request for it before rating this answer.
secret901-ga

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Clarification of Answer by secret901-ga on 11 Aug 2002 21:00 PDT

Search strategy:
measuring density

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Clarification of Answer by secret901-ga on 11 Aug 2002 21:03 PDT

Oops, my sincere apologies!
The last conversion is wrong:
1.7 kg/L * 0.001 L/cubic meter = 1.7 x 10^(-3) kg/cubic meter.
should be:
1.7 kg/L * 1000 L/cubic meter = 1.7 x 10^3 kg/cubic meter.
please make a note of that.  1 cubic meter = 1000 L.