# What is the density of brass **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 15, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356 "2011-09-15T02:09:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/1 "2011-09-15T02:09:38Z")
Per the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics? Yes, it’s a homework question, but I don’t have the handbook. I was supposed to look it up before I left the lab yesterday, but I didn’t read the instructions all the way through. Help a brutha out? ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/2 "2011-09-15T02:19:16Z")
[Here you go.](http://lmgtfy.com/?q=density+of+brass) ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/3 "2011-09-15T02:24:12Z")
Ahem—_per the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics._ ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/4 "2011-09-15T23:40:29Z")
As you’ll notice in **kidchameleon** ’s lookup, different kinds of brass have different densities. There’s also white brass, like the belt buckle I’m wearing now. It looks silvery, not yellow, until it starts to tarnish. ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/5 "2011-09-18T23:33:23Z")
There’s [this](http://books.google.com/books?id=QdU-lRMjOsgC&pg=PA649&lpg=PA649&dq=crc+handbook+density+of+brass&source=bl&ots=Aurcb81MeJ&sig=Y_a0a1GQdu5fLDKZvBXuEPA3TpI&hl=en&ei=ln52ToP4BuGnsAKTr4CMBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFQQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=crc%20handbook%20density%20of%20brass&f=false). ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/6 "2011-09-19T02:34:36Z")
3.8 grams per cubic inch. Plus or minus a bit by alloy. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/7 "2011-09-19T02:53:07Z")
**Tris** , the joke would work better if the value weren’t so ludicrously off. A cubic inch is a lot more than 3.8 cubic centimeters, and brass is obviously denser than water. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/8 "2011-09-19T14:06:25Z")
All I’ve got is the 64th edition that lists yellow brass as having a specific gravity of 8.47 and red brass as having a specific gravity of 8.70. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/9 "2011-09-19T18:07:22Z")
82nd edition (2001-2002) Yellow brass (high brass) has a density of 8.47 g/cm[sup]3[/sup] Red brass, 85%, density of 8.74 g/cm[sup]3[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/10 "2011-09-19T18:42:49Z")
Wait - it’s a homework assignment to look up something in a handbook? Was the point to illustrate that brass is an alloy and can vary? Boy, your teachers are really challenging you with that assignment. I see a post-doc in your future. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/11 "2011-09-19T18:57:07Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > 82nd edition (2001-2002) > > Yellow brass (high brass) has a density of 8.47 g/cm[sup]3[/sup] > > Red brass, 85%, density of 8.74 g/cm[sup]3[/sup] Ooooh, show off with your fancy schmancy 82nd edition. Mine has the periodic table with Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/12 "2011-09-19T21:41:01Z")
> [@CC](#): > > Wait - it’s a homework assignment to look up something in a handbook? Was the point to illustrate that brass is an alloy and can vary? Boy, your teachers are really challenging you with that assignment. I see a post-doc in your future. Or, possibly, he needs to use the value in order to proceed with a calculation or discussion of a laboratory result as part of his homework, and didn’t obtain the data before it was too late. It was a regular occurrence for me when I did my chemistry courses in university. A copy of the CRC Handbook was in the lab, but if you forgot to get the info before you left at the end of the day, you had to either get it from the library or elsewhere. > [@Bill\_Door](#): > > Ooooh, show off with your fancy schmancy 82nd edition. Mine has the periodic table with Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. It’s pretty too; green with a blue title block. In near perfect condition. My brother bought it for me for a steal off of eBay in 2003. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/13 "2011-09-19T23:15:05Z")
Probably because I had just seen the thread title about bra sizing, I read this one, inevitably, as asking about the density of bras. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/14 "2011-09-19T23:16:18Z")
Wait, someone actually _bought_ a CRC? I got mine for free from my high school physics teacher. I thought that sort of thing was where _all_ CRCs came from. Next you’ll be telling me that they’re actually _published_, or that there are editions that were printed in the last two decades. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/15 "2011-09-19T23:33:03Z")
My office has the 1981-1982 version (62nd). Not sure why. Anyhow: page D-161, yellow brass (high brass) 8.47, red brass (cast) 8.7. Highest atomic number in the periodic table: 106. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-density-of-brass/596356/16 "2011-09-20T00:04:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wait, someone actually _bought_ a CRC? I got mine for free from my high school physics teacher. I thought that sort of thing was where _all_ CRCs came from. Next you’ll be telling me that they’re actually _published_, or that there are editions that were printed in the last two decades. Well, you have to keep buying them to be up-to-date on whatever obscure organic compound they add from edition to edition. I’ll bet there are at _least_ 20 facts that I have access to that **fiddlesticks** doesn’t, which clearly makes me a better person! I’m not sure what motivated my brother to buy this for me, other than thinking it would be useful. I’m enough of a geek that whenever I grab it off the shelf to find something (usually for the SDMB) I end up paging through it and learning something new (which I then promptly forget). And it’s pretty, and makes the corner of my bookshelf look all important and stuff.