Gas Density Calculator

This gas density calculator helps you find the type of gas based on the mass and volume entered.

Density1.204 kg/m³0.001204 g/cm³, 0.0752 lb/ft³

Volume1,000 litres1 m³

Mass1.204 kg

Density1.204 kg/m³0.001204 g/cm³ — numerically the same as the specific gravity of a solid or liquid

Specific gravity0.00121relative to water at 20 °C — it floats in water

Specific volume0.8306 m³/kgthe reciprocal of density

Weight on Earth11.8072 Ndensity is about mass, not weight — the same object has the same density on the Moon

Against balsa wood0.0075×160 kg/m³

Against water0.0012×998 kg/m³

Against concrete0.0005×2,400 kg/m³

Against aluminium0.0004×2,700 kg/m³

Against steel0.0002×7,850 kg/m³

Against lead0.0001×11,340 kg/m³

Against gold0.0001×19,300 kg/m³

The formula

ρ = m ÷ V

Density is intensive, weight is not

Density is mass per unit volume, and it is an intensive property: cutting an object in half leaves the density unchanged, because both mass and volume halve. That is what makes it useful for identifying a material regardless of how much of it you have.

It is also independent of gravity. An object taken to the Moon weighs a sixth as much but has exactly the same density, because neither its mass nor its volume changed. Confusing density with "heaviness" is the usual source of trouble here.

Specific gravity is density relative to water, so for solids and liquids it is numerically the same as density in g/cm³ — a happy coincidence of water being almost exactly 1 g/cm³. Anything above 1 sinks in water and anything below floats, with the submerged fraction equal to the ratio itself.

Note that density varies with temperature, and for gases with pressure too. Water is unusual in reaching maximum density at 4 °C rather than at its freezing point, which is why ice floats and why lakes freeze from the top down.