Question

Question #ec70f

Answer 1

Molarity: 5 M

Explanation:

I assume that you're dealing with a 20% w/v solution, which would have 20 g of sodium hydroxide for every 100 mL of solution.

Since molarity is defined as moles of solute, in your case sodium hydroxide, divided by liters of solution, you need to use a sample of this solution to figure out how many moles of sodium hydroxide you would get per mole of solution.

To make the calculations easier, I'll use a 1-L sample. This sample would contain

`1000color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mL solution"))) * "20 g NaOH"/(100color(red)(cancel(color(black)("mL solution")))) = "200 g NaOH"`

Use sodium hydroxide's molar mass to determine how many moles you'd get in this many grams

`200color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g"))) * "1 mole"/(40.0color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g")))) = "5.0 moles NaOH"`

Since the sample had a volume of 1-L, its molarity will be

`C = n/V`

`C = "5.0 moles"/"1 L" = color(green)("5 M")`