Debbie was doing a science lab, and she was instructed to decide whether a piece of plastic would float or sink without actually putting the plastic in the water. How could she do this?

Question

Debbie was doing a science lab, and she was instructed to decide whether a piece of plastic would float or sink without actually putting the plastic in the water. How could she do this?
 A. 
This is not possible.
 B. 
find the volume of the plastic and compare it to the density of water
 C. 
find the mass of the plastic and compare it to the mass of a beaker of water
 D. 
find the density of the plastic and compare it to the density of water

GPT-4o mini · Answer

Debbie can determine whether the piece of plastic will float or sink by D. find the density of the plastic and compare it to the density of water.

If the density of the plastic is less than the density of water (which is approximately 1 g/cm³), it will float. If the density of the plastic is greater than that of water, it will sink.