A 300*lb300⋅lb mass of a chemical is accidentally spilled into a dam whose volume is 1.362xx10^4*m^31.362×104⋅m3... What is the "ppm"ppm concentration?

1 Answer
anor277
Jun 25, 2017

Whoops.....well first we have to have kosher units.......We ASSUME the chemical is homogeneously mixed in the dam, and we finally get a volume of over 10 million litres.........

Explanation:

"1 ppm"=1*mg*L^-1=10^-3*g*L^-11 ppm=1⋅mg⋅L−1=10−3⋅g⋅L−1. At "ppm"ppm levels of concentration we don't really have to worry about solution density.

We gots 300*lb300⋅lb of stuff, i.e.

300*lbxx454*g*lb^-1xx10^3*mg*g^-1=1.362xx10^8*mg300⋅lb×454⋅g⋅lb−1×103⋅mg⋅g−1=1.362×108⋅mg

And now we can write out the quotient..........

"mass"/"volume"="concentration"=10*mg*L^-1massvolume=concentration=10⋅mg⋅L−1.........

So "volume"="mass"/"concentration"=(1.362xx10^8*mg)/(10*mg*L^-1)volume=massconcentration=1.362×108⋅mg10⋅mg⋅L−1 and we gets an answer in LL, which we then convert to m^3m3

=1.362xx10^7*L=1.362xx10^4*m^3=1.362×107⋅L=1.362×104⋅m3, not an insignificant volume......

All I have done is to use the unit conversions, and know that "milli"=10^-3milli=10−3.......I agree that it is not wholly straightforward, but practice is the key.

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