Determination of the volume of regular and irregular bodies

Principle

The students should determine the volume of 3 solid bodies. In doing this they should know that the cubic meter (m³) is the unit of volume and also that the term liter (l) is very common.

1. On immersion of a solid body in a graduated cylinder, the difference of the initial and final water levels gives the volume directly. The accuracy of this method increases with increasing narrowness of the graduated cylinder, i.e. with increasing difference in the water levels.
2. Immersion of a body in an overflow vessel and weighing the mass of the overflow volume generally results in more accurate results, since it is possible to read the scales more accurately than the graduated cylinder (meniscus!).
3. For regular bodies the calculation of the volume from the length, width and height, which have been measured with a vernier caliper, is the most accurate measuring method (see ME 1.1, Length measurement).

The volume tolerances are ±0.2 cm³ for the two columns and ±0.5 cm³ for the bosshead.

Task

How much water is displaced by a solid body?

Determine the volume of a solid body in 3 different ways.

1. Immerse both metal columns in the water-filled graduated cylinder and determine the volume of the displaced water from the difference of the two water levels.
2. Immerse all 3 solid bodies one after another in the filled overflow vessel and measure the volume of displaced water with the graduated cylinder.
3. Measure the length, width and height of both regularly shaped bodies with the vernier caliper and calculate their volumes from the measured data.

Compare the results obtained and the different measuring methods with each other.

Literature for this article als follows

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