A CHM 111 student recorded the mass of a piece of dry lead metal as 23.7412 g. He obtained a graduated cylinder and recorded an initial water volume of 25.0 mL; upon addition of the metal, the water level rose to 27.1 mL. Calculate the density of lead in units of g/mL. (Watch your sig figs!)

density = mass/volume

You have the mass metal given.
Volume = 27.1-25.0 = ? That's because of the Law of Impenetrability which says that two objects can't occupy the same volume at the same time. So when the Pb was placed in the graduated cylinder the water level ROSE because the Pb displaced that much volume.

11.30

To calculate the density of lead, we need two pieces of information: the mass of the lead and the volume of the water displaced by the lead.

Given:
Mass of lead = 23.7412 g
Initial water volume = 25.0 mL
Final water volume (after adding lead) = 27.1 mL

First, let's find the volume of the lead. This can be determined by subtracting the initial and final water volumes.

Volume of lead = Final water volume - Initial water volume
= 27.1 mL - 25.0 mL
= 2.1 mL

Now we can calculate the density of lead by dividing the mass of the lead by its volume:

Density = Mass of lead / Volume of lead
= 23.7412 g / 2.1 mL
= 11.3538 g/mL

However, we need to consider significant figures. The given mass has 7 significant figures and the given volume has 3 significant figures. When performing division, we round the result to the least number of significant figures, which is 3 in this case.

Therefore, the density of lead is 11.4 g/mL (rounded to three significant figures).