page_title: Density
hierarchical_section_title: Density
caption_attribution_description: English: A graduated cylinder filled with various liquids to illustrate density. It's also really colorful and pretty. See File:Another artsy density column.png for another version (before settling). From the bottom to the top 0–11 ml Maple syruporange 11–30 ml Gradient from Dish soap (green) to water (dyed blue) 30–34 ml Water (dyed blue) a 34–39 ml Wine (dyed red) a 39–49 ml Vegetable oil b 49 ml–top Olive oil b a b They sorta blend into each other. Instructions for creation (what i did; may not be the most efficient) 1 Add maple syrup to an empty graduated cylinder; take care to avoid spilling it on the sides (I used a pipette for this). 2 Add one drop of blue food coloring to about 100 ml of water. 3 Pour in some of the blue water using a pipette if wanted (if you get it on the sides, let the cylinder dry after) 4 Pipette or pour in some dish soap, it should settle below the water without many bubbles, though it may form a gradient (which is pretty too.) 5 Use a pipette to suction off any soap bubbles that may have formed on the water surface. 6 Pour in vegetable oil 7 Pour in olive oil. The olive oil should float above the vegetable oil, but it may form a gradient. There will be bubbles in the oil; these should dissipate in a few hours. 8 Pipette in some more blue water—it should sink, and the oil will slow it down enough so it won't mix with the now turquoise soap-water gradient. 9 Add some red food coloring to some cooking alcohol. 10 Pipette in the alcohol; it should sink through the oil in a similar way and settle above the pure water layer. There may be a short purple transition zone. 11 Let the cylinder settle for two or three hours. I didn't include any milk, but if you do, it should be somewhere between the water and vegetable oil. Be prepared to wait a few days for it to settle into a nice defined layer.
context_page_description: The density, of a substance is its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ, although the Latin letter D can also be used. 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, density is loosely defined as its weight per unit volume, although this is scientifically inaccurate – this quantity is more specifically called specific weight.
  For a pure substance the density has the same numerical value as its mass concentration.
  Different materials usually have different densities, and density may be relevant to buoyancy, purity and packaging. Osmium and iridium are the densest known elements at standard conditions for temperature and pressure.
  To simplify comparisons of density across different systems of units, it is sometimes replaced by the dimensionless quantity "relative density" or "specific gravity", i.e. the ratio of the density of the material to that of a standard material, usually water. Thus a relative density less than one means that the substance floats in water.
  The density of a material varies with temperature and pressure.
context_section_description: The density (more precisely, the volumetric mass density; also known as specific mass), of a substance is its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter D can also be used. 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 loosely defined as its weight per unit volume, although this is scientifically inaccurate – this quantity is more specifically called specific weight.
  For a pure substance the density has the same numerical value as its mass concentration.
  Different materials usually have different densities, and density may be relevant to buoyancy, purity and packaging. Osmium and iridium are the densest known elements at standard conditions for temperature and pressure.
  To simplify comparisons of density across different systems of units, it is sometimes replaced by the dimensionless quantity "relative density" or "specific gravity", i.e. the ratio of the density of the material to that of a standard material, usually water. Thus a relative density 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.
caption: A graduated cylinder containing various coloured liquids with different densities
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