Joe Palaski, Luc Madonna, Anthony Rivetti

Penny Density Lab Questions

1. For both methods, the best match was iron. However, we know that this is incorrect for
pennies are not made of iron, therefore we made errors in our measurements and
calculations. One of the next best matches was copper though, so our calculations were
too far off.

2. Our densities are slightly different than the densities given on the chart because some of
our measurements were probably off by a little bit. When measuring the height of a stack
of pennies, it was up to the person measuring to determine if the stack was flush against
the zero mark and to determine how long the stack was. Since the stack was so small, it
was easy to make a mistake in measuring them. Also, when dropping the pennies into the
graduated cylinder, some water splashed out which altered the results.

3. This number is somewhat consistent with our data. The density that we measured is about
0.5 mL away from the actual density of the mixture. We think our number is different
because some of our measurements were off causing our calculations to be skewed.

4. Volume is the amount of space an object possesses. When an object is placed into water,
the water is displaced by the object since the object takes up a space causing the water
level to rise. You then can measure the amount of water that rose which is would be the
volume of the object.

5. Based on our data, the density that we measured by using the graduated cylinders is more
accurate. We believe this method was more accurate because the volume was not
calculated with a formula but by water displacement. We think that water displacement is
more accurate to calculate the volume because we did not have to measure the height and
diameter of the pennies, where there could be errors made.

6. We thought that instead of doing the experiment on stacks of pennies that we should just
do it on individual pennies. We had a difficult time keeping all the pennies of one group
with each other. Sometimes the stacks would fall next to each other and we did not which
ones belonged to each group. To fix this, we think that we should only do the experiment
on individual pennies. It would be much more efficient to measure and to keep track of
since there is only one and not a stack of five.

7. Before 1982, pennies were made of mostly about 95% copper and about 5% of zinc.
Pennies made after 1982 are made of a mixture of copper (2.5%) and zinc (97.5%). This
change in material was caused by the skyrocketing price of copper. The mints were
forced to make copper-plated-zinc pennies using less copper and more zinc.