Ipe ( pronounced ee-pay ) is a Brazilian hardwood that can be used as a durable (and expensive!) construction material for decks, docks and other outdoor projects.Every cubic foot of ipe weighs 69 pounds. Use dimensional analysis to convert the density of ipe to g/cm^3. How does the density compare to other woods and material on the list above?
The density of an object is by definition the mass over the volume of that object. Therefore the density of Ipe is [tex]\rho =m/V=69 (lb/ft^3)[/tex] The dimensional analysis goes as [tex]\ \textless \ \rho\ \textgreater \ =\ \textless \ lb/ft^3\ \textgreater \ =\ \textless \ 0.4535 kg/(0.3048 m)^3\ \textgreater \ =[/tex] [tex]=\ \textless \ 0.4565 kg/0.0283 m^3\ \textgreater \ =16.13 \ \textless \ kg/m^3\ \textgreater \ [/tex] Therefore [tex]\rho =m/V =69 (lb/ft^3)=69*16.13 (kg/m^3)=1113 (kg/m^3)[/tex]
