LABORATORY EXPERIMENT – 9-LAYER DENSITY TOWER

I. INTRODUCTION

Density is the ratio between mass and volume or mass per unit volume, it is the amount of

matter packed into a space. The symbol most commonly used for density is ρ (the lower-case

Greek letter rho). Density can be mathematically expressed as ρ = 𝑚

𝑣
, and is commonly expressed

as kg/m3. In this experiment, you will learn density by stacking different liquids to make a colorful

tower.

II. OBJECTIVES:

a. To introduce the concept of density and hydrostatic pressure.

b. To understand how liquids of different densities will interact with each other by stacking

them on one container.

c. To give awareness that some liquids are immiscible.

d. To analyze and discuss the result that will be obtained from the experiment.

III. MATERIALS:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Food baster/pipette/medicine dropper (anything that can hold and transfer liquid)

Food coloring (for labeling the colorless liquid)

Nine plastic cups (to maintain the same level in each liquid)

9 Different liquids:
Honey, Light Corn Syrup/Maple Syrup, Dish Soap, Water, Rubbing alcohol, Baby Oil,

Vegetable oil, Whole Milk, Chocolate Syrup, Lamp oil (optional)

Glass cylinder (any glass that can hold acceptable equal amounts of each liquid that can

float the given materials in the list) at least can hold up to 500 mL.

1 pc Bolt of any size

Popcorn kernel

Dice or die

Small-sized tomato OR calamansi

10. Plastic beads or button

11. Soda bottle cap (plastic)

12. Marble

13. Ping Pong Ball

For Safety Purposes: Use hand gloves and eye protection.

IV. PROCEDURE

Step 1: In each of the plastic cups pour at least 30 to 50 mL of the different liquids, such that each

cup contains a small measure of a different liquid. Get the mass of each cup after pouring

a small amount of liquids.

Step 2: Add a few drops of food coloring to the colorless liquids (e.g. water, alcohol) and stir to

mix in the color.

Step 3: Empty the cup containing the honey into the glass cylinder, making sure the honey does

not touch the sides of the cylinder. Always pour liquids into the cylinder gently to prevent

splashes and mixing with other liquids.

Step 4: Repeat the above step for the cups using a dropper/baster with corn syrup/maple syrup,

chocolate syrup, milk, dish soap, and water. Slowly pour and make sure these liquids do

not touch the sides of the glass cylinder.

Step 5: Add the vegetable oil to the cylinder. The liquid can be poured directly on, or the food

baster can be used.

Step 6: Wash the food baster using soap and use it to pour rubbing alcohol into the glass cylinder.

Direct the rubbing alcohol towards the sides of the jar instead of emptying it directly into
the center of the tower, to help prevent it from mixing with the other layers.

Step 7: Rinse the food baster again and use it to pour the baby oil and then the lamp oil in a similar

way to the rubbing alcohol. This makes the final liquid layer.

Step 8: Carefully release the objects one at a time into the tower so they “slide” as gently as

possible through the liquids and fall along the side of the container. Release them at

different spots around the container to avoid causing too much turbulence in the same

location in the liquids. This helps put the objects toward the outside of the container so

you can see them on “their” layer. Start with the bolt and then release the popcorn kernel,

the dice, the tomato, the plastic beads/button, the soda bottle cap, and the marble. Let the

upper layers settle completely between each release. The tomato may stir things up a bit

so let it all settle down again. You may have to nudge the bottle cap a little with a straw or

spoon handle, so it fills with liquid and sinks. The Ping-Pong ball will float very nicely on

top of the lamp oil.

PRECAUTIONS

1. Lamp oil is extremely flammable and should be handled with care.

2. It is highly recommended to test the density column before the actual experiment, as the

densities of the liquids may vary from brand to brand.

V. DATASHEET

DENSITY AND HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE

Given the mass and volume find the density of the materials. Given the density and height, find

pressure per layer.

LAYERS

DENSITY

HEIGHT/DEPTH

Honey

PRESSURE

662.84kg/m^3

0.0127m

82.58Pa
Corn Syrup 331.42kg/m^3 0.0254m 82.58Pa

Chocolate Syrup 220.95kg/m^3 0.0381m 82.58Pa

Water 110.47kg/m^3 0.0762m 82.58Pa

Rubbing Alcohol 82.85kg/m^3 0.1016m 82.58Pa

Dish Soap 132.57kg/m^3 0.0635m 82.58Pa

Vegetable Oil 94.69kg/m^3 0.0889m 82.58Pa

Baby Oil 73.65g/m^3 0.1143m 82.58Pa

Lamp Oil

SOLUTION

LAYERS DENSITY PRESSURE

Honey 662.84kg/m^3 82.58Pa

Corn Syrup 331.42kg/m^3 82.58Pa

Chocolate Syrup 220.95kg/m^3 82.58Pa

Water 110.47kg/m^3 82.58Pa

Rubbing Alcohol 82.85kg/m^3 82.58Pa

Dish Soap 132.57kg/m^3 82.58Pa

Vegetable Oil 94.69kg/m^3 82.58Pa

Baby Oil 73.65g/m^3 82.58Pa

Lamp Oil

VI. COMPREHENSIVE QUESTIONS

1. In which liquid did the bolt stop? How about the beads? Tomato? Popcorn kernel? Bottlecap?

Marble? Do they all sink to the bottom? Why do you think so?

• The liquid stops in the last layer which is the honey that has the highest density, the beads

stops in the layer of honey, the calamansi goes down in the honey, the popcorn goes down

also in the honey, the bottle cap is in the top layer which is the baby oil and lastly the marble

goes also in the layer of honey. As an observation, it sinks down because of the different

types of density of the objects and lhe liquid layer that’s the answer why it sinks because it
is denser than the other.

2. Does the value of the density have something to do with the position of the layers in the glass

cylinder?

• Yes! Higher density liquids will settle below lower density liquids.

3. Do some liquids sink because they are heavy? Explain and be quantitative.

• Yes, in the video we clearly see that the alcohol and the vegetable oil are likely has almost

the same density when we observe in the video.

4. What happens if we don’t start with the densest material first?

• Clearly it sink because it is more denser and having a mixed of other liquid substances

just like in our video.

5. How did the depth of water value change with the pressure?

• Pressure increases as the depth increases. The pressure in a liquid is due to the weight of

the column of water above. Since the particles in a liquid are tightly packed, this pressure

acts in all directions.

6. What is hydrostatic pressure?

• It is the pressure exerted by the fluid at equilibrium at any point of time due to the force

of the gravity.

7. When a downward force is applied, what happens to the weight of the fluid?

• It pushes to the side of the glass having a wave, then mixed with other liquid substances

but in the other liquids it goes back to its original.

VII. CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, every liquid substances has a different density causing a layer by layer to be

define as the density tower. It answers the question, how oil did not mixed in water. This

experiment gives as the clue on how we can easily know what will the heaviest and what will be

the lightest in the liquids present in the video.