Density of Water

Water is an odourless, tasteless, transparent, and colourless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of this planet’s lakes, oceans, streams, and the fluids of most living organisms. Density is the mass per unit volume of a substance.

Table of Contents

• What Is the Density of Water?
• Factors Affecting Density of Water
• Density of Water at Various Temperature Scales
• Density of Water Experiment
• FAQs

Some properties of water are given in the table below:

Watch the video and learn about the properties of water

What Is the Density of Water?

The density of a material is defined as its mass per unit volume. It’s a measurement of how tightly matter is packed together. The density of a substance can be explained as the relationship between the mass of the substance and the volume it takes up.

The Density of Water can be defined as:

It is the weight of the water per unit volume, which depends on the temperature of the water.

Factors Affecting Water Density

There are several factors which can affect the density of a substance. Some factors which affect the density of water are given in the points below.

• The density of water is approximately 1 gram/ cubic centimetre (1 g/cm³).
• It is temperature-dependent, but this relation is said to be non-linear, and also, it is unimodal in nature rather than monotonic.
• When it is cooled from room temperature, the liquid water tends to become increasingly dense, similar to other substances, but approximately at about 4°C, pure water is said to reach its maximum density.
• As it gets cooled further, it tends to expand and becomes less dense. This kind of unusual negative thermal expansion is related to strong, intermolecular forces, orientation-dependent, or interactions, and it is observed in the form of molten silica.

Read More: Thermal Expansion

Density vs Temperature 

Water does not have an absolute density as its density varies with temperature. It has a higher density in the liquid state than the solid. Check the Density Vs Temperature graph given below to understand how density changes with temperature.

Density VS Temperature Graph

You may also want to check out the topics given below!

• Unit of Density
• Relation Between Density And Volume
• What is Relative Density?
• Difference Between Density and Specific Gravity

Density of Water at Various Temperature Scales

The water density varies for different temperatures. The density (in kg/m3) of water for different temperature scale (ranging from 100 °C to -30 °C) is given in the table below.

Density of Water Experiment

To understand the density of water, let’s do a small experiment. We will need a tall glass cup, honey, water, coconut oil and food colouring,

Step 1: Pour a one-quarter cup of honey,

Step 2: Pour a one-quarter cup of coloured water gently on top of the honey.

Step 3: pour a one-quarter cup of coconut oil on top of the coloured water.

Now, you will notice that different substance has a different density, which means for the same volume different substances weigh differently, as they weigh differently heavier substances tend to settle at the bottom, like honey and lighter material like oil tends to float at the top.

Density of Several Liquids with Different Specific Gravity

Let’s extend our experiment further for more liquids, this time, we will use several liquids with different specific gravities, use the table given below for reference.