A solid steel cube of side length 5.0 cm originally had no internal cavities
MATHEMATICS · Multi-part · GCSE · Mathematics · Geometry and Measures · Geometry and Measures
Problem
A solid steel cube of side length 5.0 cm originally had no internal cavities. A cylindrical hole of diameter 2.0 cm is drilled completely through the center of the cube along one of its axes, and the material removed by drilling is discarded. After the machining step, the mass of the drilled cube is measured to be 945 g. An engineering handbook lists the accepted density of steel as 7.8 g cm⁻³.
(a) Calculate the volume of the material removed by drilling, in cm3.
(b) Determine the remaining volume of the drilled cube, in cm3.
(c) Using the measured mass, compute the density of the drilled cube in gcm−3.
(d) Calculate the percent difference between your calculated density and the accepted handbook value.
(e) Provide TWO plausible experimental or procedural reasons that could account for the difference between the calculated and accepted densities.