Thekey differencebetween density and vapour density is thattheterm density measures the mass per unit volume of any substance that can be a solid, liquid or a gas whereas the term vapour density refers to the density of vapour of a substance in relation to the density of the vapour of hydrogen.
The term vapour density is greatly different from the regular term “density” because vapour density specifically describes the density of a vapour as a relative value.
CONTENTS
1.Overview and Key Difference
2.What is Density
3.What is Vapour Density
4.并排比较 - 图形形式的密度与蒸气密度
5.概括
什么是密度?
Density is the mass per unit volume of a substance. Density is an important characteristic of matter. It is directly connected to mass. Therefore, getting a clear understanding of it is vital to have a clear understanding of mass. Accordingly, mass is a measurement of theinertiaof an object.
对于具有均匀质量分布的散装材料,我们可以通过将物体的总质量除以所占用的总体积来轻松计算此参数。但是,如果质量分布甚至没有,我们需要更复杂的方法来测量密度。

Figure 01: A Density Column
Furthermore, we can easily describe the floatation of a substance using its density. Here, floatation means that a fluid or a uniform solid that is denser than a given fluid will drown in the given fluid. Thus, if the density of the fluid or the uniform solid is lesser than that of the given fluid, it will float on the given fluid. Moreover, we can define the term相对密度in order to compare the densities of the two fluids. This is the ratio of the two densities and is merely a number.
什么是蒸气密度?
Vapour density can be defined as the density of vapour in relation to the density of vapour of hydrogen. On the other hand, we can describe it as the mass of a certain volume of a substance divided by the mass of hydrogen with the same volume. Therefore, there can be several relationship expressions regarding the vapour density as follows:
Vapour density = mass of n molecules of gas/mass of n molecules of hydrogen
Vapour density =molar massof gas/molar mass of H2
Vapour density = molar mass of gas / 2.016
As an example, the vapour density of a mixture of NO2 and N2O4 is 38.3. Further, vapour density is a unitless quantity.
However, some people tend to define the vapour density with respect to air instead of hydrogen. Here, we can give the air a vapour density of and the molecular weight of air is taken as 28.97amu. This is an average value. We can divide all other gas and vapour molecular weights by this number to get their vapour density. E.g. vapour density of acetone is 2 in relation to air. In other words, the vapour of acetone is twice as higher as the density of normal air. Therefore, using this definition, we can determine whether a gas is more or less denser than air, which is an important indication for container storage of gases and personnel safety.
What is the Difference Between Density and Vapour Density?
Density is an absolute value, while vapour density is a relative value. The key difference between density and vapour density is that density measures the mass per unit volume of any substance that can be a solid, liquid or a gas whereas vapour density refers to the density of vapour of a substance in relation to the density of the vapour of hydrogen.
The below infographic lists the differences between density and vapour density in tabular form for side by side comparison.
概括– Density vs Vapour Density
术语密度和蒸气密度彼此不同。密度和蒸气密度之间的关键区别在于,密度测量任何可能是固体,液体或气体的物质的单位体积的质量氢气的蒸气。
Reference:
1. “Density.”百科全书大不列颠, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 Feb. 2021,Available here.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Artsy density column” By Kelvinsong – Own work(CC BY 3.0)viaCommons Wikimedia
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