Density turns a geometry into a mass and underpins buoyancy, stress, and cost estimates. This reference lists typical densities for metals, plastics, woods, ceramics, and liquids in both common unit systems, and converts a volume into a part mass.
How it works
Density is mass per unit volume. The table gives each material in grams per cubic centimetre and the identical figure in kilograms per cubic metre — the two differ by exactly 1000:
kg/m^3 = g/cm^3 * 1000
To estimate a part’s mass the tool multiplies the chosen density by the volume you enter:
mass (g) = density (g/cm^3) * volume (cm^3)
So a 50 cm³ aluminium bracket at 2.70 g/cm³ has a mass of 50 * 2.70 = 135 g.
Tips and notes
- Listed values are typical: alloy, temper, moisture, and porosity all shift real density, and wood especially varies with species and moisture.
- For fluids, density falls as temperature rises — use a value at your operating temperature for precise work.
- Magnesium (1.74) is the lightest structural metal here; lead (11.3) and tungsten (19.3) are among the densest.
- Keep volume and density in consistent units; mixing cm³ with kg/m³ gives a result off by a factor of a million.