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Why is aluminium lighter than other materials?

Aluminium is lighter than many other materials because of its low density.

This is one of the main reasons why it is being used in car and aeroplane manufacturing.

Density is a physical material property which gives the ratio of mass to volume.

You can see how it compares to some other materials here:

Material Density, ρ (kg m-3)
Copper 8960
Nickel 8900
Iron 7870
Zinc 7140
Aluminium 2700
Glass 2500
Concrete 2400
UPVC 1700
Wood 750

It is much less dense than Iron (which Steel is made from).

You can find out some more information on aluminium (and all the other elements) here:

http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/aluminium.html

and

http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/data/aluminium_data.html

 

by Chris Taylor