Question

What can be used to measure the volume of sand ?

Answer 1

According to Archimedes' principle, If the body is completely submerged, the volume of fluid displaced is equal to the volume of the body.An object sinks in water if its density is higher than water, otherwise, it will float.

Complete answer:
The density of water is $1\,g/ml$. The density of sand is higher than water so it will sink. Take some sand whose volume is to be calculated and saturate it with some water. Sand absorbs water because of the pores in sand particles, but in saturated sand, those pores are filled with water.

Take a measuring flask and pour around $500\,ml$ water in it, then put the saturated sand in the water. The saturated sand will displace some water and hence the water level will rise in the flask.Now since the density of water in the pores of sand and the water in the flask is the same, hence the water in the pores will not contribute to the displacement of water in the flask.

Therefore the water displaced in the flask will be the exact volume of sand in milliliters.

Note: The size of the apparatus depends on the volume of sand. If we have to measure the volume of just a few grain particles, then instead of a flask a capillary tube should be used. When sugar is dissolved in water it acquires the space between water molecules and hence the volume of water does not change. Although sand does not dissolve completely in water but still the saturation of sand is very important or else the volume measurement will be incorrect.