Expert: Ahmed Salami - 1/18/2009

Question
I need to know what is the relationship between the mass and volume of water

Answer
Hi Donte,
The mass is a measure of the matter making it up while the volume is simply a measure of how much space it takes up. The mass and the volume are relate by the quantity, density.
density = mass/volume
This is different for all forms of matter and it is an important property. Consider two objects of the same shape, i.e taking up the same space (equal volume), one made of steel and the other of plastic. They have different masses, dont they?
For water, however, the density happens to have unit value of 1kg/m^3 (i.e one kilogram of water has a volume of 1m^3) and so the mass and volume are easily computed knowing the other one. For instance, 5kg of water has a volume of 5m^3.

Regards