Do a pound of cotton and a pound of lead have different densities?

Question

Do a pound of cotton and a pound of lead have different densities?

Answer 1

Not  necessarily.

I could take a pound of lead, melt it, fill it with air bubbles and let it expand and it could be less dense than a compressed pound of cotton.

Or, as on Mythbusters, I could roll the lead out really thin and make a baloon out of it that would be far less dense than your average pound of cotton.

It's all relative.

Answer 2

Yes, the volumes between the two can be different.

Really, it depends on how compressed the matter is.

Answer 3

Yes. Cotton is not really dense, whereas lead has the greatest density of any metal.

In other words, if you were to look at the two side-by-side, cotton would be a 1ft. x 1ft. x 1ft. cube and lead would be a 1in. x 1in. x 1in. cube. They would have the same weight, but would take up different volumes. The cotton would take up more volume.

density= mass/volume

When the mass is set to 1lb., the larger the volume is, the smaller the density becomes, this is because we are dividing by a larger number.

Answer 4

Yes. Lead is more dense.

Answer 5

YES!!!!

Because a  pound of cotton will fill a greater volume a

than a pound of lead.

To compare

11.34 g/cm^3 for Lead

1.55 g/cm^3 for cotton.

Answer 6

Think about how much cotton your would need to make a pound compare it with how much lead you would need. If one is bigger than the other, then they have different densities.