Question

Describe what happens when you lower the golf ball into the water.

Is the golf ball more or less dense than water? Explain your reasoning

Answer 1

Answer:

We can understand this very interesting experimental topic by considering the values of densities of water (fresh water) and a golf ball.

Generally, if any object has a density which is more than the density of water then that object will sink and if the density of the object is less than the density of water then that object will float on the surface of water.

The density of fresh water _water = 1 g/ml

and the density of the golf ball _golf = 1.015 g/ml (approximate value)

Therefore, _water < _golf

Hence, the golf ball will sink into the fresh water.

Here, we need to be careful about the type water we are taking for the experiment. Because, if we take an amount of sea water or salt water instead of fresh water then the result will be entirely different.

The density of the salt water is slightly more than the desnity of the fresh water.

_{sea water} = 1.025 g/ml which is more than both fresh water and the golf ball. Therefore, the golf ball will float on the sea water. Salinity changes the entire picture here.