Teacher Education in Physics

8

5. A. You will be given a plastic container or beaker deep enough to submerge a soda can that
   does not have a graduated scale of volume markings (as did the graduated cylinder used to
   measure the volume of the rectangular blocks in Activity 1.4.1). With your partners, devise an
   experiment to determine the density of a full, unopened soft drink can. Write down your plan and
   specifically include details of how you would determine the volume of the can using the
   unmarked container provided. Before executing the plan, discuss it with your instructor.

B. Once you get the go ahead from your instructor, execute your plan to measure the density of the soft

drink can. Enter your group’s value for the density of the soda can into the table below. You will be

asked to share your group result for the density with the class by writing your result on the board.

When the data for all groups is on the board, copy the class results into the following table:

Class Data for the Density of a Soft Drink Can

Group Type of Soda

(Diet or Regular)

Mass Volume Density

Your

group

C. Do you think that there should be a difference between the density of diet soda compared to that of

regular soda? Why, or why not?

D. (i) Compute the average density of the regular soft drinks using the data in the table in part B

and, separately, compute the average density of the diet drinks.

(ii) Was your prediction in part C confirmed, i.e., is there a difference between the density of

diet soda compared to that of regular soda?