Question

Chemistry Acid and Bases Help?

Answer 1

Cute question, I like this professor if they give you a lot of these!

We must assume the statue is pure calcium carbonate, `CaCO_3`.

Each time it rains, nitric acid reacts with the carbonate, such that,

`2HNO_3 + CaCO_3 to Ca(NO_3)_2 + H_2O + CO_2`

Stoichiometrically we need,

`450"kg" * (10^3"g")/"kg" * ("mol")/(100.1"g") * (2HNO_3)/(CaCO_3) * (63"g")/"mol" approx 5.66*10^3"g"`

of nitric acid to totally "destroy" the statue.

Hence, it would take,

`5.66*10^3"g" * "rain"/(75"g") * "wk"/(2.5"rain") * "year"/(52"wk") approx 58.1"yr"`

for the statue to be merely dust, water, and gas.

Fairly long, but still not the best choice to put outside!