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?
Answers
Answer:
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
10.0
g
⋅
given density
1 mL
13.534
g
=
∣
∣
∣
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
0.739 mL
−−−−−−−−
∣
∣
∣
The answer is rounded to three **sig figs, the number of sig figs you have for the mass of your sample.