Question

You have 48.3g of solid lithium sulfate. If it has a density of `"2220 g/L"`, what volume will this solid occupy?

Having trouble with this question

Answer 1

`"0.0218 L"`

Explanation:

The problem tells you that lithium sulfate has a density of `color(blue)("2220 g")` `color(purple)("L"^(-1))`, which means that every `color(purple)("1 L")` of lithium sulfate has a mass of `color(blue)("2220 g")`.

In your case, you know that the mass of an unknown volume of lithium sulfate is equal `"48.3 g"`, so use the density of the compound as a conversion factor to find the volume of the sample.

`48.3 color(red)(cancel(color(black)("g"))) * overbrace(color(purple)("1 L")/(color(blue)(2220)color(red)(cancel(color(blue)("g")))))^("given by the density of lithium sulfate") = color(darkgreen)(ul(color(black)("0.0218 L")))`

The answer is rounded to three sig figs, the number of significant figures you have for your values.

If you want, you can convert this to milliliters by using the fact that

`"1 L" = 10^3` `"mL"`

You should end up with a volume of `"21.8 mL"`.