Question

Equal volumes of water and kerosene have equal masses. True or false.
A. True
B. False

Answer 1

Hint Using the expression for density we can establish a relation between density, mass and volume of water and kerosene. Using this relation we can determine whether a given statement is true or false.

Complete step by step answer Mass is a fundamental property which is defined as the amount of matter contained in a body. Volume is defined as the total space occupied by the body. Both mass and volume are scalar quantities as they only have definite magnitude but no proper direction.
Now, when we pour both water and kerosene in a beaker we will see that the water settles at the bottom whereas the kerosene floats at the top. This is due to their difference in densities. The density of kerosene is smaller than water and that is why it floats at the surface above water. Density of a substance is defined as its mass per unit volume. Its mathematical expression is
\[\rho = \dfrac{m}{V}\] where $\rho $ is the density, $m$ is the mass and $V$ is the volume.
From this relation we can establish the fact that mass, density and volume all depend upon one another.
Now in the given question we have equal volumes of water and kerosene. Since we know that they have different densities so using the above relation we can establish the fact that they will have different masses.

Therefore, equal volumes of water and kerosene do not have equal masses. The correct option is B.

Note It is important to note that the reverse is also true i.e. two substances of equal mass but different densities will always have different volumes. From the density relation we can see the density is directly proportional to mass, which means that more is the mass of a substance, more will be its density.