High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Relative density or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity usually means relative density with respect to water. The term "relative density" is often preferred in modern scientific usage. If a substance's relative density is less than one then it is less dense than the reference; if greater than one then it is denser than the reference. If the relative density is exactly one then the densities are equal; that is, equal volumes of the two substances have the same mass. Simplified, as water is most often used as the reference, if a liquid has a density less than 1, then it will float in water. Hence methylated spirits, with a density less than 0.8, floats on the top of water. On the other hand, an ice cube with a density of about 0.91, will sink to the bottom if placed into methylated spirits.