Mercury, which is often used in thermometers, has a density of 13.534 g/mL at room temperature. What volume of mercury contains 10.0 g?

1 Answer
Mar 5, 2016

#"0.739 mL"#

Explanation:

A substance's density basically tells you how much mass of said substance occupies one unit of volume.

In your case, the density of mercury is given in Grams per milliliter, #"g mL"^(-1)#, which means that it expresses the mass of mercury in #"1 mL"# of mercury.

So, mercury is said to have a density of #"13.534 g mL"^(-1)#, which means that #"1 mL"# of mercury has a mass of #"13.534 g"#.

You want to know the volume of mercury that will contain #"10.0 g"# of the element. Since your sample is lighter than the mass associated with #"1 mL"#, you can expect its volume to be smaller than #"1 mL"#.

You can use dimensional analysis using the density of mercury as a conversion factor

#10.0color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g"))) * overbrace("1 mL"/(13.534color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g")))))^(color(purple)("given density")) = color(green)(|bar(ul("0.739 mL"))|)#

The answer is rounded to three **sig figs, the number of sig figs you have for the mass of your sample.