In which scenario would you expect a high specific gravity of materials?

The specific gravity of a substance is defined as the ratio of its density to the density of a reference substance, typically water for solids and liquids. In this context, when a material has a high specific gravity, it indicates that it is much denser than the reference substance, which is water.

When comparing materials to water, a high specific gravity suggests that the material is significantly denser than water, which has a specific gravity of 1. This can occur with metals like lead or gold, which are known to have high densities. Therefore, materials that are much heavier than water will exhibit a high specific gravity, meaning they would sink if placed in water.

In contrast, when materials are compared to light metals, gases, or plastics, the reference points have lower densities than typical high-density materials. As such, these comparisons would not provide the same insight into the density characteristics of the materials in question.