A graduated cylinder is filled to 15.6 mL with water and a piece of granite is placed in the cylinder, displacing the level to 17.8mL. What is the volume of the granite piece in cubic centimeters?

The volume of the granite piece is 2.2 (2.2 = 17.8-15.6) cubic centimeters. A graduate cylinder is a tool for measuring a volume of a liquid object. The granite piece's volume could be obtained by measuring the difference between the beginning of water volume and the latter water volume assuming there is no reaction between the water and the granite piece. The cubic centimeter unit is equal the milliliter unit, so there is no conversion needed.

The volume of the granite piece is simply the difference of the displaced volume level and the original volume of water which is 17.8 mL - 15.6 mL = 2.2 mL or 2.2 cm^3. This is by the Archimedes Principle where the volume of the object in the liquid would be equal to the volume displaced.