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The document summarizes a student's lab experiment comparing the mass and density of pre-1982 pennies and post-1982 pennies. The student weighed 6 pennies of each type and found that the pre-1982 pennies were slightly heavier on average. They then measured the volume of each penny by seeing how much water was displaced when the pennies were placed in a graduated cylinder. Using the measurements of mass and volume, the student calculated that the density of pre-1982 pennies was 8.8g/mL, while the density of post-1982 pennies was 7.2g/mL. The differences in densities are because pre-1982 pennies are made of solid copper, while post-1982 pennies have

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52 views2 pages

Pennylabwrite Up

The document summarizes a student's lab experiment comparing the mass and density of pre-1982 pennies and post-1982 pennies. The student weighed 6 pennies of each type and found that the pre-1982 pennies were slightly heavier on average. They then measured the volume of each penny by seeing how much water was displaced when the pennies were placed in a graduated cylinder. Using the measurements of mass and volume, the student calculated that the density of pre-1982 pennies was 8.8g/mL, while the density of post-1982 pennies was 7.2g/mL. The differences in densities are because pre-1982 pennies are made of solid copper, while post-1982 pennies have

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api-310727021
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Effect of Different Metal Compositions of Pennies

What we did before the lab was, we read all the instructions and tried to see what we were doing so we all can be able to
understand what this experiment is about. We also had to get all the materials before we started it. Questions I had were what
will be the difference of the two pennies because they look identical. Like which one will weigh more. We got 6 pennies from
both types and weighed them and wrote the data on a sheet. Then we used a cylinder and dropped the pennies in the cylinder.
The results were that the Pre pennies were a bit more heavy than the post pennies, even though they both look the same. In the
end of the experiment we made a graph and put the data so the computed can do all the calculation.
The density of copper is higher than zinc. After 1982 pennies were made of zinc with copper coating. We used a
measuring scale to weigh the Pre-1982 pennies and the post 1982 pennies. I observed that the pre or post, one of them were
slightly Heavier but barley noticeable. Something else I observed is that the pennies were so dirty that when I put the gloves on
they went from white to yellow. I wasnt able to identify which Penny's were pre and which were post. The density of one Pre
1982 penny is mass over volume, the density is 8.8g/mL. The Density for one post 1982 penny is 7.2g/mL.

Which of the two pennies will weigh more? My hypothesis was that the Post 1982 pennies were going to be more heavy than
the pre 1982 pennies. If I put the Post 1982, then take it off and put the pre-1982 penny I will see which one weighs more
because the scale measures it. If pennies are made of only copper they will be more dense than pennies made of copper and zinc.
The Materials we used was a graduated cylinders, scale, pennies, water, weight boats, and gloves

First we grabbed 6 pennies of the two types. Second we put the weight boats on the scale and we wrote how much each weighs.
After one penny we added another until there was six pennies on the scale, both post and pre pennies. Then we filled the
graduated cylinder to 20 and we dropped the penny till it stopped floating or till it just sunk. The pennies sunk and we looked at
the cylinder to get the volume. You need to use the equation mass/volume and

The mass for the pre 1982 pennies for one Penny was 1, and was was 1.3g. For the post 1982 penny it was 0.5 and 2.4g.

The blue dots on the both graphs show the mass and the blue line is the x and y which x is 6.317 and y is 9.489 for the pre 1982
pennies, The x for post 1982 penny is 2.413 and y is 7.064. The density for the Pre 1982 pen is 8.8g/mL. For the post 1982
penny it was 7.2g/mL.

My hypothesis was rejected because the pre pennies were more heavy than the other pennies but only slightly. One error is when
we were going to weigh the pennies the scale wasnt even, there wasnt anything on it and it said it was weight 7 pounds so we
added the Penny and how much it was weighing was odd so we reset it and it turned out to look more curate. Also we
accidentally put a pre penny with a post penny, that would of changed all of our data. I am positive that we may have done ever
thing right, Im not going to lie but I dont really know if our results are correct. I feel like we did collect enough data though.
We also compared the our data with other class mates to see if we had the same data. I hope we made no errors with this lab.
The pattern exist because we put the data in the google sheet and it calculated it for us. But I was kind of lost when I tried to
figure out what was the pattern and why it looked that way but I couldn't. I think it is scientifically interesting because the
pennies look exactly the same but weight different. They also have different densities

Unknowing. penny lab handout. retrieved for mshord.weebly.com

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