2011-01-28

Last minute questions...


----Question----
I can't figure out the ppm question when it asks what is the concentration in ppm of a solution made by dissolving 14.18mg of dinitrotoluene (182.13g/mol) in 4.00L of water. I thought you took .01481g/182.13 than you took that answer divided by 4kg and than take that times 1 million but its not working out for me.
----Answer----
"ppm" is (by convention) usually thought of as a mass-mass unit, so it's part of the mass fraction family.
ppm (dinitrotoluene, DNT) = [ {mass DNT} / {total mass of sample} ] * 10^6 =
[ {0.01418g DNT} / {4000g + 0.01418g} ] * 10^6 = 3.55ppm DNT
NOTE: because the volume of water only known to 3 sig figs and is so large compared to the mass of DNT, the denominator simplifies to just 4000g.

----Question----
You don't need to know molar mass of a substance to find what: molarity, molality, normality, mole fraction, or mass percent?
----Answer----
The only reason you would need the molar mass would be to calculate moles of the substance, so anything that includes moles will require the molar mass. Because mass percent is just a ratio of masses, you can calculate it without knowing the molar mass of the substances involved. This is related to the previous problem above.

1 comment:

  1. How in the world do we figure out our grades? I looked on your web page and on D2L... I am running out of ideas here.

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