Welcome to our exploration of mass, volume, and density. These three fundamental properties of matter are interconnected and help us understand how objects behave in the physical world. Mass tells us how much matter an object contains, volume tells us how much space it occupies, and density describes how tightly packed that matter is.
Mass is the amount of matter contained in an object. Unlike weight, mass never changes regardless of where you are in the universe. Whether you're on Earth or on the Moon, an apple with a mass of one kilogram will always have the same mass. Mass is measured using a balance scale, which compares the unknown mass to known standard masses.
Volume measures how much space an object takes up. We can measure volume in different ways. For liquids, we use containers with graduated markings to measure in liters or milliliters. For solid objects like cubes, we calculate volume by multiplying length times width times height. A larger object has more volume than a smaller one, regardless of what it's made of.
Density describes how tightly matter is packed together. It's calculated by dividing mass by volume. Objects with the same volume can have very different densities. A container packed with many particles has high density, while one with few particles has low density. This is why oil floats on water and stones sink - oil is less dense than water, but stone is more dense than water.