When an equal-armed balance balances, you can say that the forces on its 2 arms are equal. This is an application of the principle of moments. In air, the force due to a body of mass M & density D is the gravitational force M*g with the buoyancy force Fb subtracted. According to Archimedes, Fb = V*Da*g where V is the volume of the body, g is the accn due to gravity & Da is the density of air (1.20kg/m^3 at 20C). Since V = M/D (D is the density of the body), we can write Fb = M*g*Da/D
Thus for the balance to balance, this equation must be true:
Mb*(1 - Da/Db) = Mw*(1 - Da/Dw) where subscript b refers to brass & w to the wooden block. You must find the density of brass (Db) and then solve the equation. However, since Db is something like 8000kg/m^3, and Da is 1.2kg/m^3, Da/Db