The author’s purpose in this paper is to tell its readers that porosity, volume, and density are

physical properties of solid materials that can be determined by various methods. There are many kinds
of voids in a solid that requires different methods to calculate the physical properties of a solid. The
paper focuses on lab methods that are often used in research and quality control applications.

There were many methods that were used, first and foremost, was to introduced definitions of
density and volume from various sources, namely the American Society for Testing and Materials
(ASTM) and The British Standard Institute (BSI). The paper also defined density and volume in various
conditions. The author used an example of a brick to introduce different void volume in a solid, like open
pores, closed/blind pores, external void volume, and so on, showing that the volume of a solid, in this
example the brick, cannot be determined just by its length, width, and thickness. Then, he introduced
volume and density determination methods using manual laboratory devices such as pycnometry
methods, hydrostatic weighing, hydrometers, buoyancy method, density gradient column, and tap
density and vibratory packing density. Then, the author explained the volume and density determination
methods by laboratory analytical instruments such as skeletal volume and density by gas pycnometry,
envelope volume and density by displacement of dry medium, bulk, envelope, and skeletal volumes and
densities by mercury porosimetry with a monolithic and powdered sample material. Lastly, the author
talked about the porosity information derived from volume and density determinations, including
different mathematical equations for different volumes, where all of the equations could be rearranged
to determine the pore volume. The paper also provided a list of definitions of porosity by several
sources.

The main findings of this paper is that there are many ways to calculate the volume of a solid
material because there are many surface irregularities, fractures, fissures, and pores accessible from the
surface and isolated within the structure. As for solids in powder form, there contains interparticle voids
and it depends on how the particles are packed. Besides that, there are also many different type of
experimental techniques to determine the porosity, volume, and density of a solid as mentioned in the
above paragraph. The determined values, however, are dependent on the technique used and whether
or not the scientists decides to include or exclude void spaces of a certain object.

I have obtained great knowledge about porosity, density, and volume of a solid from this paper
because the author has done a good job in explaining the definitions, provided a list of definitions for
the physical properties, and also the determination methods and procedures for porosity, density, and
volume. As it was mentioned, there are many different ways to determine these physical properties
values and therefore, the scientist responsible for the calculations has to be familiar with all the
methods for the data he wants to obtain.