The mass of over
300 different 'dry' materials are listed below. Liquids,
metals and woods
are on other pages and a site search facility is on the home
page. The data is useful for the design and selection of bulk materials
handling plant, bulk transport and packaging, individual samples will
differ. Moisture content will have a marked influence.
As 1000kg of pure water = 1 cubic metre, those materials under 1000kg/cu.m
will float; more dense will sink ie. those materials with a specific gravity
more than 1.
Pure water was chosen as the 'base line' for specific gravity and given
the value of 1. The specific gravity of all other materials are compared
to water as a fraction heavier or lighter density. For example, ammonium
nitrate has a specific gravity (sg) of 0.73 while dry ammonium sulphate
has a sg of 1.13 (1130 kilograms/cubic metre) (see table below)
As specific gravity is just a comparison, it can be applied across any
units. The density of pure water is also 62.4 lbs/cu.ft (pounds per cubic
foot) and if we know that ammonium nitrate has a sg of 0.73 then we can
calculate that its density is 0.73 x 62.4 = 45.552 lbs/cu.ft.
Note, kg/cu.m divided by 16.02 = lbs/cu.ft
We have tried
to be accurate with the above table but cannot be held responsible for
in-accuracies.
Go back to first principals and double check your calculations if the
result is 'mission critical'.
Remember that
you cannot create energy only convert it. Likewise, you will not find
a conversion from pounds to metres - the basic units must remain the same
- mass converted to mass, length converted to length, et al.
You won't usually find a conversion from kilograms to grams - the prefix
'kilo' means '1,000' so a kilogram is in fact 1,000 grams in the same
way as a kilometer is 1,000 metres [or about 1,000 yards in 'old money'].
I have put a few in the tables because visitors have asked for them. More
prefixes can be found on another table.
One handy metric link between units to remember is that 1 Litre [1000cc]
of pure water weighs 1 kilogram.
If accuracy is critical beware of old versions of MS Excel which had problems
rounding off numbers.