Need help with materials & procedures

[tallandier]

I need help with the materials and procedures to answer the following question:
Does the density of wood affect how much weight different pieces of wood will hold in water?

[deleted-42343]

For materials, you will need wood, weights, and a bucket of water.

It could be difficult to find wood with large variations in density. To make it easier on yourself, you might try to go to home depot or someplace similar and check out the different types of wood planks they sell there. I would either buy different types of wood (which should have different densities, you should do some research on that) and make them all the same dimensions, or you could get wood, measure the volume of water it takes up and weigh it, and then that will give you your density. You would want wood that is relatively flat so the weights don't fall off.

You could then put each piece of wood in a bucket of water and see how many weights it holds before just submerging underwater.

[kgudger]

Hi

I just wanted to add to that great answer from Amber. Depending on what store you go to (e.g. Home Depot), you probably won't find a wide variety of woods with varying densities. I suggest trying a hobby shop for some balsa wood, one of the least dense woods around. A home improvement store might have some denser woods, such as oak. It you want to lower your costs, try to find a cabinet making shop in your area that will give you some cut offs, maybe of maple? You can also try a company that sells hardwood flooring and ask if you can have some cut off scraps. HTH.

Keith