Question

An oven – dried soil of mass 400g is placed in a pycnometer where empty weight is 573g. The mass of pycnometer with soil is 973g. The total mass of pycnometer with water and soil inside is 1605g. The pycnometer filled with water alone has mass of 1480. The specific gravity of solids is 2.65. Its water content is ______

(a) 40.456

(b) 46.504

(c) 23.236

(d) 6.423

I got this question in unit test.

The origin of the question is Water Content topic in division Index Properties Determination of Geotechnical Engineering I

Answer 1

Correct answer is (b) 46.504

The explanation is: given,

M1= 573

M2=973

M3=1605

M4=1480

G=2.65

∴ \(w=[(\frac{M_2-M_1}{M_3-M_4})*(\frac{G-1}{G})- 1]× 100 \)

\(w=[(\frac{973-573}{1605-1480})*(\frac{2.65-1}{2.65})- 1]× 100 \)

=46.504%.