Does water weigh the same as sand when filled equally in a container?

Question

I say yes and my husband says no. He thinks the sand weighs more.

Answer 1

I say yes they are equal, if they are exactly the same amount. its kind of like saying there is 1kg of feathers and 1 kg of flour and then asking which one is heavier. the answer is going to be both of them are the same amount because they are both 1kg. You don't judge from the type of material or object they are.

Answer 2

Many of the responses here don't really address the question. You asked whether a container of sand weighs as much as an equal volume of water. The fact that sand sinks in water does not, in any way, answer this question. It answers the question "does water weigh the same as soaking wet sand..."

Dry, packed sand is still denser than water. You can test this by filling a yogurt container with dry sand and closing the lid, then seeing if the sealed container sinks in a basin of water. You will find that the sand is heavy enough to drag the air down with it.

Answer 3

No sand will sink to the bottom. It's heavier; otherwise all the water at our beaches would have a layer of sand at the top

Answer 4

Your husband is right.
Packed sand weight about twice as much as the same volume of water.
If you doubt it, just put sand in water: sand will sink, therefore it weight more than water.

Answer 5

Sand is denser than water, that is why sand is on the bottom of the ocean and not the top.

Answer 6

No.

Water and sand have different densities. Besides, the density of the sand depends on the size of the grains, how compacted it is and how much moisture (water) is in the sand.

Answer 7

The rule of thumb for common granular materials is "everything has a density of 1 g/cm^3." Air porosity makes it a fair approximation. It obviously fails for dense materials like iron filings or water-saturated soil.