Suppose we want to charge a flask with 1.9 g of sugar. We put the empty flask on a balance and it is determined to weigh 170 g. Enter the weight we would expect to see on the balance when we're done adding the sugar.
How about 170 + 1.9 = ?
If you are into significant figures, that would be 172 if the mass you were given is 170 and not 170.0 g.
Well, if we're adding 1.9 g of sugar to the flask, we can expect the weight on the balance to increase. However, sugar can be a bit mischievous, so it might try to make a sweet escape and not fully cooperate with our plan. Hence, I would expect the weight on the balance to be slightly more than 170 g when we're done adding the sugar. Just how much more? Well, that's a sugar-loaded mystery waiting to be discovered!
To determine the weight we would expect to see on the balance after adding the sugar, we need to add the weight of the sugar to the initial weight of the flask.
Given:
Initial weight of the flask = 170 g
Weight of sugar to be added = 1.9 g
To find the final weight, we can add these two values together:
Final weight = Initial weight of the flask + Weight of sugar
Final weight = 170 g + 1.9 g = 171.9 g
Therefore, we would expect to see a weight of 171.9 g on the balance after adding the sugar.
To determine the weight we would expect to see on the balance when we're done adding the sugar, we need to calculate the total weight of the flask and the sugar combined.
Given that the empty flask weighs 170 g, we need to add 1.9 g of sugar. Therefore, the expected weight on the balance can be calculated by adding the weight of the empty flask (170 g) to the weight of the sugar (1.9 g):
Expected weight = Weight of the empty flask + Weight of the sugar
Expected weight = 170 g + 1.9 g
Expected weight = 171.9 g
Therefore, we would expect to see a weight of 171.9 g on the balance when we're done adding the sugar.