How much empty space is there in a sand filled container?

Question

I need to write a hypothesis and procedure on this question but I don't quite see how I can. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Hmm....Tough call.


I'm not quite sure of the best way to measure this, but here's AN idea:
Fill a graduated cylinder with sand. Say, 100 mL of sand?

Weigh it.

Take a funnel and place it against the top of the sand, but don't bury it. Add water, slowly.

Continue to add water until it starts to rise above the level of the sand.

Cover (to prevent evaporation), and leave it for a little bit. Add a little more water if you need to.

Weigh the thing again.

Water weighs 1 g/mL. So for every extra gram that the thing weighs, you have 1 mL of water. Since sand is for the most part insoluble, every mL of water = 1 mL of empty space.

Answer 2

It is called pore space

07 May 2002: Therese Donatello (ST Edwards School, Elmwood Park) -- Porosity revisited
Terry continued the discussion of porosity of materials, which was begun in the 02 April 2002 class by Erma Lee. Whether materials such as soil are composed of rocks or very fine particles, there is always some space between the pieces of solid material. This empty space, called pore space, is the subject of the investigation. She filled identical vessels with plastic beads of various diameters, and then measured the amount of water required to fill the container. She determined the porosity, as given by the ratio of the volume of water added to the total volume of the container. We obtained the following results:


Diameter of Bead Porosity
12 mm 0.53
7 mm 0.42
4 mm 0.43

Ken Schug pointed out that for large containers, these porosities should all be the same, since the beads have the same spherical shape, and the fraction of empty space should be independent of the bead diameter. The discrepancy occurs here for the largest beads, because our vessels have a volume of only about 50 ml. Very absorbing lesson, Terry!

Answer 3

I would say there is an infinite ammount of space in the jar, as everytime you add something the space decreases by that much, until you run out of space for that something, however you can then add another something that is smaller than the first thing you added, until the space is again to small for the new object, and you can continue to do this,
I would say while the size of the object heads towards
Object--->0 the Space also heads towards 0
Space-->0
However the smallest object we know off, may not be the smallest object in existence or that people/God/nature/whatever has the abiltiy to create, so you may be able to jam 1,000,000 electrons in the jar... and not be able to fit anymore, but what about something smaller than an electron?
You could even say 1/2 of an electron, and then 1/4 of 1/2 of an electron (so you could use one object do demonstrate the jar is infite!

Answer 4

Here's an idea: Try using something that would fill the void inbetween the sand... like water. Then you can measure the volume it takes to fill the empty space and figure out exactly how much empty space there was.

Answer 5

Even with a sand filled container...you can still fill it with water...so there still is some empty space left. How much...???.... that depends on how big the container is. Example....a one quart jar filled with sand could still hold a cup of water ( I not sure about the cup...but it will hold some water) That will be up to you to determine how much it can hold.

Answer 6

Google on "closest packing" for some theory on how much space there might be. Randomly packed uniform objects tend towards around 29%, but sand isn't uniform. For testing, you just fill the spaces with liquid.

Answer 7

Get a jar and fill it to the top with sand and weigh it.
Poor water into the jar until the jar is full and weigh it again.

Youget the drift from here all you need to know is the weight of water and you on your way.

Answer 8

I read this. Same theory. Take an empty glass and fill it with marbles. The glass looks full. Next pore tiny pebbles in it. Now it is full. Now pour sand in it. Is it finally full?.Pour water in it.Guess "there is always room for Jello."

Answer 9

well for ur hypothisis, just write down ur guess followed by the unit of messument to the power of 3 (cubed if u are really smart) then you write down the equation that you will use to solve it, and then comes the answer. i don't know the units or the amount of sand in the container, if i did, i could tell you the equation

Answer 10

I would think that there would be no empty space if it is filled. Wait, how full is the container-that might help.