Question

To determine the density of corn syrup, a student poured 3.0 mL of the liquid into a 10.0 mL graduated cylinder and massed the cylinder and contents. He determined the density to be 10.5 g/cm3. The accepted value for the density of corn syrup is 1.38 g/cm3. The most probable cause of error was that -

Answer 1

He probably didn’t determine how much the graduated cylinder weighed before he put the liquid in. He should have weighed the graduated cylinder and then put the liquid in the graduated cylinder, weigh that, and then subtract the weight of the graduated cylinder from the amount of liquid inside.