There are many ways to distinguish between soils rather than just the plain eye test. The purpose of this lab is to identify the soil that is being analyzed by testing the soil to find the specific gravity. The specific gravity basically identifies the unique fingerprint of a soil by comparing the ratio of the density of the material is to that of water. This test uses a pycnometer to help identify the Specific gravity of the soil.
Raw DATA
The water content, mass of soil, mass of water, volume of water, volume of soil and specific gravity can all be solved for with the data provided above. All this data was collected during the specific gravity lab except for the mass of can + dry soil which was collected two days later because this would allow the soil to completely dry.
The diagram above is an illustration on what took place during the lab. The illustration is called a phase diagram which is helpful in understand what went on during the lab and help solve for the Specific Gravity. The soil was added to the pycnometer followed by adding water to the indicated line on the pycnometer. The specific gravity of the soil is 2.76. The flash used in this experiment is a 500 mL flask which is important to consider when solving for the volume of the soil.
The two tables above are typical specific gravity values for mineral soils which is found in the textbook Geotechnical Engineering Principles and Practices by Donald P. Coduto. The values found in text support the specific value for the soil found in the lab.
Geotechnical Engineering 