Exp7 Measuring masses

course PHY231

I just reviewed the video and notes for experiment 7. I was able to answer all of the questions except the one that follows.

If when determining the mass of a small washer, the beam position could be brought to within .1 cm of its original position by a balancing mass of 1.21 g, then what might be the mass of the washer?My guess is that since we aren't given information about the distance from the center of the beam to the balancing pans, this must relate to the damping cylinder. If the cylinder is displacing exactly 1 cm of water, then I think the mass of the washer must be within .1 gram of the 1.21 g balancing mass.

This is a good answer.

If you know the dimensions of the cylinder, you can figure out how much water volume, and therefore how much buoyancy, corresponds to .1 cm of the cylinder.