What is the difference between density and relative density?

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What is the difference between density and relative density?

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Answer 1 · 2016-05-23T08:03:55

Please see below.

Explanation:

The density is mass divided by volume and hence it has a unit - say in SI units it is $\frac{k g}{m^{3}}$ $(kg)/m^3$ and in FPS units it is $\frac{l b}{{(f t)}^{3}}$ $(lb)/(ft)^3$ .

For example density of water in SI units is $1000 \frac{k g}{m^{3}}$ $1000(kg)/m^3$ and in FPS unit it is $62.42796 \frac{l b}{f t^{3}}$ $62.42796(lb)/(ft^3$ .

For iron it is $7874 \frac{k g}{m^{3}}$ $7874(kg)/m^3$ or $491.55776 \frac{l b}{f t^{3}}$ $491.55776(lb)/(ft^3$ .

Relative density on the contrary is the ratio of the density of certain matter with that of water. Hence, it does not have a unit, but is just a number. As such, it's value will not change when we change units, as both densities are calculated as ratio.

It is obvious that for water it is just $1$ $1$ and for iron it will always be $7.874$ $7.874$ , whatever units one uses.

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What is the difference between density and relative density?

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