The density of copper is 8.95g/cm3 and the density of zinc is 7.14 g/cm3, A sample of a Cu-Zn is 80.5 percent Cu and 19.5 percent Zn What is the density of the alloy?
1 answer
They probably expect you to compute a "weighted mean" density that is 80.5% of the copper density PLUS 19.5% of the zinc density. However, in the real world, a slightly different value is possible. The intramolecular forces and atom spacing in alloys of metals that dissolve in one another, as in this case, can behave in strange ways.