Analyzing the Setup
Imagine you are standing by the ocean, holding a beaker filled with exactly one litre of sea water
Within this vast volume of water, a minuscule amount of oxygen gas—just 10.30 mg—is dissolved. This dissolved oxygen is what sustains marine life! Our mission is to express this tiny concentration in a more intuitive unit: parts per million (ppm).
To do this, we need to compare the mass of the oxygen to the total mass of the sea water. But right now, we have the volume of the water and the mass of the oxygen in different units. We need to bring everything onto a level playing field.
The Master Equation
The formula for parts per million is beautifully simple
It tells us how many parts of solute exist in one million parts of the solution.
ppm=Mass of solutionMass of solute×106
Crucial Step: Both masses must be in the exact same unit, typically grams, before we can plug them into this equation. Don't make the silly mistake of mixing milligrams and kilograms!
Finding the Mass of the Solution
We are given the volume of the sea water as 1 L, which is equivalent to 1000 mL
We are also given its density, d=1.03 g/mL.
Using the fundamental relationship between mass, volume, and density, we can find the total mass of our solution:
msolution=1000 mL×1.03 g/mL
Converting the Solute Mass
Now, let's look at our solute, the oxygen gas
Its mass is given as 10.30 mg. To convert milligrams to grams, we multiply by 10−3.
Final Calculation
We have our raw ingredients ready
Let's substitute them into the master equation:
ppm=1030 g10.30×10−3 g×106
Let's simplify the powers of ten first. Multiplying 10−3 by 106 gives us 103, or 1000.
Dividing these numbers gives us a clean, perfect integer:
The concentration of dissolved oxygen in the sea water is exactly 10 ppm. This means for every one million grams of sea water, there are 10 grams of oxygen dissolved in it!