Plant & Soil Sciences eLibrary^PRO

Lesson Outline

(Take Passel Quiz)

Soils - Part 2: Physical Properties of Soil and Soil Water

Rate Me

Particle Density

A soil particle has no pore space, and is nothing more than a very small piece of rock. The weight of an individual soil particle per unit volume is called particle density. Usually, particle density is expressed in units of grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm³). An average value for particle density is 2.66 g/cm³. This means that a soil particle that is 1 cubic centimeter in volume weighs 2.66 g. In comparison, water has a density of 1 g/cm³, and organic matter has a density of 0.8 g/cm³. In English units, water has a value of 62.4 lbs/ft³. Traditionally, most measurements of soil physical properties are expressed in the metric system. For your reference, 2.54 cm = 1 inch; 454 g = 1 pound.

Particle density plays an important role in our understanding and determination of other physical properties including bulk density and porosity.

Comments

Be the first to write a comment...

Add Comment

Control Panel

Community Blogs Community Media

My Joined Communities

more Register for another course

Class Blogs Class Media

This project was supported in part by the National Research Initiative Competitive Grants CAP project 2011-68002-30029 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, adminstered by the University of California-Davis and by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Undergraduate Education, National SMETE Digital Library Program, Award #0938034, administered by the University of Nebraska. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USDA or NSF.