Question

a graduated cylinder contains 21.0 ml of water. when you place a gold ring in the water, the graduated cylinder reading is 23.5 ml. you place the same gold ring in a different graduated cylinder that contains 17.5 ml of water. what do you expect the reading of this graduated cylinder to be?

Explanation:

Step1: Calculate the volume of the gold ring

The volume of the gold ring is the change in volume in the first - graduated cylinder. So, we subtract the initial volume of water from the final volume.
$V_{ring}=23.5\ mL - 21.0\ mL=2.5\ mL$

Step2: Calculate the final reading in the second graduated cylinder

We add the volume of the gold ring to the initial volume of water in the second graduated cylinder.
$V_{final}=17.5\ mL+2.5\ mL = 20.0\ mL$

Answer:

$20.0\ mL$