Material Calculator - Density of Mixed Materials
A calculator for mass, volume and density of a mixture of substances with different densities. Of course, an assumption is that these substances don't react chemically with each other (also don't form an alloy) and mix well. Up to five different materials with mass, volume and density can be entered. Mass and volume can have any unit, as long as it is the same for every material. The density unit results from these two. Please enter of each material two of the three values, the third value as well as total mass, volume and the density of the mix will be calculated.
Density is mass per volume, a common unit is g/cm³. Then, mass is in grams, volume in cubic centimeters. Or kilograms and liters. The density of water is about 1 g/cm³. Here you can find the density of the chemical elements.
Example: if you mix two liters of water (mass 2 kg, volume 2 l, so density 1 g/cm³) with one kilogram of gasoline (mass 1 kg, volume 1.333 l, so density 0.75 g/cm³), you will have 3 kilograms with a volume of 3.333 liters of an unusable and undrinkable liquid with an average density of 0.9 g/cm³. However, the two substances hardly mix, so the gasoline floats on top and the density increases from top to bottom.
This calculation is of course only that of a weighted average. In theory, the density of each substance given is added proportionally and then the result is divided by the number of substances. For mass and volume, however, the average is not calculated, but rather they are added together. This is because mass and volume increase the more you add, but density is mass divided by volume, so the extra is above and below the fraction line and thus canceled out. In practice, masses and volumes are added first and then the one result is divided by the other.
An example that has nothing to do with realistic values, but makes the calculation clearer: Substance 1 has mass 2 and volume 3, substance 2 has mass 4 and volume 5, and so on up to substance 5, which has mass 10 and volume 11. This results in a total mass of 30, a total volume of 35 and an average density of 0.857, which corresponds exactly to the density of substance 3, which of course should not be surprising when you consider how the input values originated.
